^H 



Sliill 

355 Hn 

Hi 
eftti 

liilS 

iliiii 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap... Copyright No*. 



UNJTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A HISTORY 



OF THE 



BAPTISTS IN THE WESTERN STATES 

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



y 



JUSTIN A. SMITH, D. D. 

Editor of the " Standard " 



" Different statements of truth, different forms of worship, an altered out- 
ward life, there may be ; but the spiritual affections, the sense of duty, the 
charity, the penitent trust, the divine desire, the hatred of wrong, the faith 
in the unseen, which constitute true religion, belong to all generations." 

S. L. Caldwell, D. D. 



gi 8* ,,0 *r, r x 



i^' ;,. 



AUG 241896 

PHILADELPHIA ^~ *-[ lyQ^t) 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCTETS "" 

1420 Chestnut Street 






a*' 



Copyright 1896 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 




PUBLISHERS' NOTE 



The Committee of Publication of the American Bap- 
tist Publication Society considers itself especially fortu- 
nate in having secured a History of Baptists in the 
Western States east of the Mississippi from one whose 
personal knowledge covered so many of the important 
movements which he has chronicled. The only defect 
in the volume arises from the relation of the author to 
the history. There is no account of Dr. Smith's share 
in the work of the Baptists in Illinois during the forty 
years of his life in that State. The Committee cannot 
consent to give to the public a history with no other 
reference to Dr. Smith's part in the events, quorum pars 
magna fuit, than a meagre mention of dates. 

His influence in giving form and pressure to the vari- 
ous denominational movements in Illinois can hardly be 
overestimated. That influence arose partly from his po- 
sition as editor of ' ' The Standard, ' ' still more from an 
unselfish public spirit, a judicial cast of mind that gave 
his opinion great weight, and a sweetness of temper that 
made all men his friends. 

Dr. Smith entered on his editorial career at a most 
opportune time. Only twenty years had elapsed since 
the organization of Chicago as a town. Ten years after- 
ward, in 1842, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, were 
yet Territories. The treasury of Illinois was bankrupt ; 
the currency of the State had been annihilated ; a debt 
of fourteen million dollars had been contracted ; the 
means of communication, East or West, were of the 
most primitive character ; hence there was no market 
for agricultural productions, and with no money, no 
market, no credit, with everybody in debt, everything 

3 



was at a standstill. The number of Baptist ministers 
in the State who had received a thorough education was 
so small that one hesitates about stating it. 

In 1853, the aspect of affairs had greatly changed. 
The credit of the State was re-established. Railroads 
began to make their way westward, and were projected 
in Illinois. The population rapidly increased. The 
State became attractive ; churches were multiplied ; re- 
ligious enterprises were begun, partaking of the earnest- 
ness characteristic of such a population. During this 
decade, two or three newspapers, some of them sprightly 
and vigorous, were born, lived their brief hour, and died. 
In 1853, "The Christian Times" was established, and 
Dr. Smith was soon installed as its editor. The name 
was changed to the honored appellation which it has 
since borne. The Baptists had entered on their forma- 
tive period. It was at once evident that Dr. Smith had 
come to the kingdom for such a time as this, and that 
he was gifted with every qualification for his work. 
Master of a style of singular grace and beauty, an accu- 
rate and accomplished scholar, widely read in the best 
literature, his columns not only met every want, but 
gave proof of his ample resources, his conscientious 
treatment of every subject, and his excellent influence 
•in all directions. Under his editorship, ' ' The Standard " 
won national character and reputation. 

It does not belong to the purpose of this note to speak 
of his literary work in other lines. Suffice it to say that 
he was the author of memoirs, commentaries, and pub- 
lished sermons, which the world ought not to let die. 
Interested in every plan for progress, unceasing in per- 
sonal effort, foremost in every council, giving time, 
thought, energy, to laying foundations in all educa- 
tional and missionary lines, he was an integral part of 
the denominational life in the Northwest. And it is the 
most blessed thought in the recollection of him, that no 
eulogy uttered since his departure has not been gladly 
echoed by all his brethren ; no word of praise spoken 
after death was not spoken of him and to him before he 
was taken from us. 



PREFACE 



In preparing this history a chief difficulty has been in 
the collection of material. The sources of it have been, 
to a considerable extent, the favors of obliging corre- 
spondents, who in more than one instance have been at 
great pains to render in a really helpful way the aid 
solicited. In that connection we name, with the most 
sincere thanks, such as Drs. Samuel Haskell and A. E. 
Mather, and Prof. Daniel Putnam, of Michigan ; Rev. 
James Delany, and Drs. David Spencer, D. Halteman, 
and M. G. Hodge, of Wisconsin ; Dr. Justus Bulkley, 
Eev. B. B. Hamilton, and Eev. E. S. Walker, of Illi- 
nois ; President W. T. Stott, of Indiana ; Drs. Daniel 
Shephardson and George E. Leonard and Mr. George 
E. Stevens, of Ohio, with Prof. F. W. Shephardson, of 
the University of Chicago, Rev. W. F. Boyakin, of 
Kansas, and Mrs. G. S. Bailey, of California. 

In footnotes and otherwise, in the body of the book, 
acknowledgment is made to these and others who, 
either in correspondence or in papers read on different 
occasions and made available in their printed form, have 
so efficiently aided in a task which, only for such aid, 
would have been very much more difficult if not practi- 
cally well-nigh impossible. At the end of the book are 
named the several sources, in a table, with a view to 
make this acknowledgment more full and explicit. 

5 



6 FREFACE 

That in such an amount of detail as Baptist history 
in these States written at the present time makes imper- 
ative serious omissions will occur, is much to be feared. 
The writer has been especially anxious at this point, yet 
apprehends that with all his care and solicitude his success 
in making his work in this feature of it complete will 
be only partial. May he hope for the generous consider- 
ation of his brethren in that regard ? To have been in 
any sense unjust to any one, or to any interest, will be 
the more an occasion of regret as his long association 
with those of whom in these pages he often has occasion 
to write, and his personal relations to many things here 
to be recorded, have so much enlisted his own personal 
sympathy, while recalling associations, alike with the 
living and the dead, which often could not be thus re- 
called without deep emotion. 

However all this may be, the book is offered as a ser- 
vice and a tribute, in recognition of the sterling merit 
alike of those who have led and those who have co- 
operated in Baptist progress on this great field, and of 
that splendid record so made, to which some future his- 
torian may do justice where the present one has failed. 

J. A. S. 



CONTENTS 

I. Early Times in the West, 9 

II. First on the Field, in Ohio and Illinois, 24 
III. First on the Field, in Indiana, Michigan, 

and Wisconsin, 54 

IV. Church Beginnings in General, .... 74 

V. At the Chief Centers, 94 

VI. Conflicting Elements, 120 

VII. Church Growth, 140 

VIII. On the General Field, 163 

IX. Home and Foreign Missions, 184 

X. State Organization, 220 

XI. Sunday-schools and the Young People, . 244 

XII. Education — Collegiate. I., 259 

XIII. Education — Collegiate. II. , . . . . . 295 

XIV. Education — Theological and Secondary. I., 329 

7 



8 CONTENTS 

XV. Education — Theological and Secondary. 

II,, 352 

XVI. Journalism, 365 

XVII. The Later History, 395 



HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 



CHAPTER I 

EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 

TPHAT rivalry between France and England, often 
-i- taking the form of active hostility, which sig- 
nalizes so much of European history, found other 
opportunities of manifestation upon the American 
continent. What New York, New England, and 
Virginia, were to England, Canada was to France, 
while each nationality might seem, equally with the 
other, entitled to gain and hold new domain toward 
the west, in the measure of its enterprise in exploring 
and taking possession. Collision, however, was in- 
evitable. As French adventure and colonization 
moved westward by way of the great lakes, and south- 
ward and westward to the Ohio and the Mississippi, 
they found after a time their right of occupancy dis- 
puted. Meantime, while French and English were 
contending on battlefields in Europe, it could not 
fail to happen that wherever representatives of those 
two nationalities should meet in the new world, it 
must be as enemies, not as- friends. 

Differences of religion, besides, gave to these colli- 

9 



10 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

sions and rivalries a significance even wider than 
that concerning ownership and occupancy of mere 
territory. Were the vast regions to which there 
were these conflicting claims to be Papal or Protes- 
tant? This momentous issue was involved in all that 
earlier history. The Jesuit missionary was often even 
in advance of the explorer and the fur-trader, and 
while he was eagerly seeking to make converts of the 
Indian tribes, the missions planted by him became 
centers of Catholic colonization. While such adven- 
turers as La Salle, Joliet, and Nicollet, were extend- 
ing westward and southward the limits of discovery, 
Marquette and his associates were no less active, and 
with no less of daring and self-sacrifice, in preparing 
the way for what it was meant should be a definite 
and permanent settlement of the country. 

" Soldiers and fur-traders/ ' says Parkman, 1 " fol- 
lowed where these pioneers of the church led the way. 
Forts were built here and there throughout the 
country, and the cabins of the settlers clustered about 
the mission-houses." The " new colonists, emigrants 
from Canada or disbanded soldiers of French regi- 
ments," however wild in their habits of life, were de- 
vout Catholics, and wherever a little community of 
them gathered there was a center of the Roman faith. 
The missionaries were animated, no doubt, in the 
main by intense desire for the conversion of the 
native tribes. " While the colder apostles of Protes- 
tantism labored on the outskirts of heathendom, these 
1 "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," Vol. II., p. 251. 



EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 11 

champions of the cross, the forlorn hope of the army 
of Rome, pierced to the heart of its dark and dreary 
domain, confronted death at every step, and were well 
repaid for all, could they but sprinkle a few drops of 
water on the forehead of a child, or hang a golden 
crucifix round the neck of some warrior, pleased with 
the glittering trinket," x None the less were they the 
instruments of designs far more secular in character. 

As intimated in the first words of the above extract, 
Protestantism found no such fervid championship. 
The day was to come when a different form of effort 
for conversion of the natives should be made by minis- 
ters of a truer faith and with better results than those 
just described. In the time of which we here write, 
Protestantism was represented simply in the person of 
the American pioneer, seeking a home farther and 
farther in the depths of the Western wilderness, per- 
haps with his religious instructor and guide sharing 
with him the rude conditions of wilderness life, per- 
haps not, yet in either case representative of ideas 
which must mean in Western development something 
far different from all that appeared in the Jesuit mis- 
sionary or the Canadian settler. 

We cannot speak here of the more warlike forms 
of this contest for possession and occupancy of those 
regions within which lie the States whose religious 
history in one aspect of it, is to occupy us in the fol- 
lowing pages. Nor can we do more than simply to 
thus note in passing, how much deeper was the sig- 
1 Parkman's " Conspiracy of Pontiac," II. , p. 250. 



12 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

nificance of the struggle, often so fierce and bloody, 
than simply as a contest for the possession of terri- 
tory. It was indeed not possible that this vast do- 
main should ever belong to France. Had it been so, 
aud had this been the actual outcome, who can measure 
the difference in result from what appears at present, 
not only in American history, but in the history of 
true religion throughout the world? 

Due recognition should not, meanwhile, be denied 
to the hardy and resolute men who were first to ex- 
plore the mighty wilderness beyond the Western lakes 
and along the Western rivers : such as La Salle, 
Joliet, Marquette, and Nicollet. Of these, La Salle 
appears to have been the first. In 1669 he discov- 
ered the Ohio River, and followed its course down as 
far as where Louisville now stands. A year or two 
later he passed through Lake Michigan as far as 
the present site of Chicago, crossing thence to the 
Illinois River and descending it, as is claimed, to its 
junction with the Mississippi. In 1678, on his third 
adventurous expedition, he built a fort on the Illinois 
below what is now Peoria, leaving his heroic asso- 
ciate, Tonti, to occupy it, while he himself returned 
to Canada for reinforcements and supplies. In 1682, 
in a fourth attempt, he explored the Mississippi to its 
mouth and in the name of his king, Louis XIV., 
took possession of the whole vast region from the 
Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, giving it the 
name Louisiana. 

Joliet and Marquette were more or less associated 



EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 13 

in their expeditions, much the same in character as 
those of La Salle, save that Marquette, as a Jesuit 
missionary, had aims and hopes of his own. The 
first human dwelling other than the wigwams of 
the Indians, where Chicago now stands, was the little 
log hut erected for Marquette in October, 1674, by 
the two Frenchmen who remained with him while 
Joliet proceeded upon his farther explorations, and 
which sheltered him in the illness caused by hard- 
ship and exposure. In the following year, prose- 
cuting his mission among the Indians, he proceeded 
as far south as Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country. 
Returning northward, his strength only enabled him 
to reach a small river in the west of Michigan, near 
the promontory called the " Sleeping Bear." Here he 
died, his remains being taken for burial to St. Ignace, 
also in what is now the State of Michigan. 

The explorations of Joliet were along the Wiscon- 
sin, the Illinois, and the Mississippi Rivers, in the 
years 1672-1674. To whom the honor of actual 
discovery of the Mississippi belongs, whether to La 
Salle, Joliet, or Marquette, their expeditions to the 
great river occurring so nearly at the same time, is, 
we believe, a question still undecided. 

The first actual settlements of the territory now 
occupied by the five States of Ohio, Michigan, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, and Wisconsin were, as we have said, in 
the interest and hope of a French occupation of this 
whole region. Detroit, in Michigan ; Yincennes, in In- 
diana; Kaskaskia,in Illinois; Green Bay, in Wiscon- 



14 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

sin, were originally French. Whether, however, they 
were to prove actual outposts of French occupancy, 
depended upon the continuance of the French posses- 
sion of Canada, and this in no small degree upon the 
outcome of what was taking place upon the continent 
of Europe itself. While France found its resources 
taxed to their utmost in holding its ground in wars 
there raging, it had but few men and small treasure 
to spare for the subjugation of a continent on the 
other side of the sea. The loss of its Canadian pos- 
sessions upon the taking of Quebec by the British 
under General Wolfe, meant hopeless failure to its 
scheme of occupying with French settlements the 
western shores of the great lakes, and the banks of 
the Wabash, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. The ques- 
tion of destiny, in the particulars here considered, 
was finally decided when, during the war of the 
Revolution, the enterprises of Colonel George Rogers 
Clark resulted in gaining for American freedom and 
possession, not only the States with which we are 
here concerned, but very much more than even this. 
Very just is the tribute paid to him, where it is said : 
"All that rich domain northwest of the Ohio was 
secured to the public at the peace of 1783, in conse- 
quence of his prowess." l 

Save in the exceptional cases where military occu- 
pation more or less prepared the way, it may perhaps 
be said that original possession of the territory bor- 

1 Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography," article 
"George Eogers Clark." 



EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 15 

dering on the great lakes and the Ohio, now embraced 
within the States of which we are here especially to 
speak, was in general otherwise than by any form of 
deliberate colonization. As population in New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, spread to the western or 
northern limit of those States severally, it would 
soon break over the border, under the pressure of 
that restless desire for change which has been so much 
an impelling force in American character from the 
beginning. First to occupy the new ground would 
be the hunter and the pioneer. Only after a lapse of 
time, save in exceptional cases, could formal settle- 
ments grow up, and these in their earlier history 
could only be of the crudest kind. It was not long, 
however, before the fame of the rich soil and mani- 
fold openings for enterprise in the West began to 
suggest the idea of methods in* colonization more de- 
liberate. Families of emigrants from the older 
States sought the new* territory, and the cabin of the 
mere pioneer gave place to the better-ordered dwell- 
ing of " the settler." 

Among these latter themselves there was enough of 
a class unique in American life to impart a char- 
acter of its own to Western population, with elements 
whose influence in many ways was to be felt long 
after. Speaking especially of Illinois, a well-in- 
formed w r riter says : * 

The larger proportion of these first American settlers came 

1 Hon. John Moses, in his "Illinois, Historical and Statisti- 
cal," Vol. I., pp. 229, 280. 



16 niSTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

from Virginia and Maryland. While a few had received a 
rudimentary education, and had lived among communities 
which may be said to have been comparatively cultured, the 
most of them were hardy, rough, uncultivated backwoodsmen. 
They had been accustomed only to the ways of the frontier 
and camp. Many of them had served in the war of the 
Revolution, and all of them in the border wars with the 
Indians. While they were brave, hospitable, and generous, 
they were more at ease beneath the forest bivouac than in the 
"living room" of the log cabin, and to swing a woodman's 
axe among the lofty trees of the primeval forest was a pur- 
suit far more congenial to their rough nature and active tem- 
perament than to mingle with society in settled communities. 
Their habits and manners were plain, simple, and unostenta- 
tious. Their clothing was generally made of the dressed skins 
of the deer, wolf, or fox, while those of the buffalo and elk 
supplied them with covering for their feet and hands. Their 
log cabins were destitute of glass, nails, hinges, or locks. 
Their furniture and utensils were in harmony with the primi- 
tive appearance and rude character of their dwellings, being 
all home-made, with here and there a few pewter spoons, 
dishes, and iron knives and forks. With muscles of iron and 
hearts of oak, they united a tenderness for the weak and a 
capability for self-sacrifice worthy of an ideal knight of chiv- 
alry, and their indomitable will, which recognized no obstacle 
as insuperable, was equaled only by integrity which regarded 
dishonesty as an offense as contemptible as cowardice. 

Communities made up of such elements, and under 
conditions like those which the making of homes on 
a remote frontier must necessarily create, would have 
a character quite their own. Yet the writer we have 
quoted intimates farther on that the primitive settlers 
were in some respects of a higher type than some, at 
least, of those who came later. " In moral endow- 



EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 17 

merits," be says, " even if not in mental attainments, 
these sturdy pioneers of Illinois were, it must be 
admitted, vastly superior to many of those who fol- 
lowed them when better facilities for transportation 
rendered the country more accessible." 

It is suggestive to note, in this connection, upon 
the other hand, what Parkman says of those French 
settlers who were first on the ground, and who were 
in due time to give place to such as those we have 
just mentioned. He is describing in particular the 
colony at Kaskaskia, Illinois : 

The Creole of the Illinois, contented, light-hearted, and 
thriftless, by no means fulfilled the injunction to increase and 
multiply, and the colony languished in spite of the fertile 
soil. The people labored long enough to gain a bare subsist- 
ence for each passing day, and spent the rest of their time in 
dancing and merry-making, smoking, gossiping, and hunting. 
Their native gayety was irrepressible, and they found means 
to stimulate it with wine made from the fruit of the wild 
grapevines. Thus they passed their days, at peace with 
themselves, hand and glove with their Indian neighbors, and 
ignorant of all the world besides. Money was scarcely known 
among them. Skins and furs were the prevailing currency, 
and in every village a great portion of the land was held in 
common. 1 

It is not by such as these that States are founded 
or civilization developed in institutions that endure as 
centuries come and go. 

Of points upon this then new territory which 
became in due time chief centers of population, may 
1 "Conspiracy of Pontiac," p. 252. 



18 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

be named the sites, respectively, where now stand 
the cities of Detroit, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and 
Chicago. The settlements at these points, especially 
at the first and the last, owed their origin, first of all, 
to their importance as military posts — the date of 
their occupancy being in the order just named. First 
upon the ground at Detroit was La Motte Cadillac, 
by whom a military colony was planted, and a fort 
built in 1701. It soon grew to be one of the most 
important of French outposts in the West. The 
British took possession of it in 1760, at the time of 
their conquest of Canada, holding it until 1787, when 
the United States gained possession, with General 
Arthur St. Clair as commandant at the fort. In 
1812 the British regained the fort, and for a short 
time held it. In 1813 it passed again into American 
hands, and from that time to- the present Detroit has 
been included in the domain of the republic, growing 
in due time into one of the most attractive of Amer- 
ican cities. 

Cincinnati affords an example among cities on the 
territory now under view, of deliberate colonization. 
It was, indeed, early a military post, as Fort Wash- 
ington, yet the occupation of the site chosen for a town 
seems to have been more a formal and deliberate one 
than in either of the other instances named. A colony 
from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in 1789, first 
broke ground for the city, which in due time came to 
be known as the " Queen City of the West." The 
introduction of steam navigation on the Ohio River 



EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 19 

supplied a marked impulse to trade and enterprise, so 
that Cincinnati was one of the first of Western cities 
to acquire renown as a center of Western growth and 
power. 

Chicago, even as a military post, is of more recent 
date than either Detroit or Cincinnati. It was more 
than a hundred years later than the original French 
occupation of what is now Detroit that, in 1804, Fort 
Dearborn was erected where Chicago now stands. As 
in the case of Detroit, a population soon began to 
collect around the military post thus created, and 
although in 1812 Fort Dearborn was taken by the 
Indians, and the soldiers, with several inhabitants of 
the place, massacred, still the site was not abandoned. 
The fort was again occupied, a town plat surveyed in 
1 829, and since that time the growth has been constant. 
During the last half-century, indeed, such has been its 
rapidity as to make Chicago a marvel in this respect 
among cities of either the old world or the new. 

The French occupation at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and 
other points in the southern section of what was at 
the time a part of Virginia, but is now Illinois, has 
already been mentioned, but should be more partic- 
ularly noticed in this connection. In 1778 Kaskaskia, 
and the whole region of which it was the center, was 
won from the French by Colonel George Rogers 
Clark. Of those who were with him in these military 
undertakings, several made choice of the region about 
Kaskaskia as a home, and settled there. Besides 
these, the first to become a permanent settler was 



20 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Captain Nathaniel Hull, from Massachusetts. " Aside 
from the members of Clark's command/' says Judge 
Moses, " some of whom doubtless remained contin- 
uously in the country/' Captain Hull " was the first 
original immigrant/' his arrival occurring apparently 
somewhere about 1780. In the following year a party 
of immigrants arrived from Maryland. In 1783 
more of Clark's old soldiers found permanent homes 
on the scene of their recent conquest, and in 1786 
several immigrants from Virginia arrived, among 
them James Lemen and his family, so conspicuous 
among early Illinois Baptists. 

The first mention in history of Milwaukee, as far 
as we can ascertain, is in the report of an officer in 
the United States engineers, Lieutenant Sarrow, in 
1817. It is spoken of by him as "a Pottawatomie 
village lying on the right bank of the Milwaukee 
River at its confluence with the lake." An attempt 
at French settlement farther north, at Green Bay, had 
been made in 1639. It shared the fate, however, of 
many other such attempts. The beginnings of Mil- 
waukee, nevertheless, were of the same nationality, 
the first white man to make a home on the present 
site of that now flourishing city being Solomon 
Juneau, a French fur trader, who located there in 
1825. He lived to become, at a later day, the first 
mayor of the city which had grown up where his own 
humble cabin originally stood. In 1835 Milwaukee 
was laid out and organized as a village, the lake com- 
merce and other favoring conditions developing it 



EARLY TIMES IN THE WEST 21 

rapidly to city proportions, with a question of rivalry 
in growth and claim to consideration between it and 
Chicago which, even forty years ago, was yet unsettled. 
In point of beauty of location it still is far in the 
ascendency, while in general attractiveness it has few 
equals among Western cities. 

For purposes of this history we have only occasion 
to notice, in this place, further, and that briefly, the 
order in which the five States under view attained 
first to territorial organization, and then at last to 
Statehood. It was in 1783, in the treaty with Great 
Britain at the close of the war of the Revolution, 
that what was then designated as the Northwest Ter- 
ritory was confirmed to the United States. As this 
vast region became occupied by permanent settlers, 
local government was at once a necessity. The first 
application to Congress with this in view, appears to 
have been by those who had settled in Kaskaskia, 
Illinois. On July 13, 1787, what is styled the ordi- 
nance of 1787, making provision for the organization 
of the Northwestern Territory, became a law. Of 
this, as quoted by Judge Moses, 1 Chief Justice Chase 
once said : " Never, probably, in the history of the 
world, did a measure of legislation so accurately 
fulfill and yet so mightily exceed the anticipations of 
the legislators. It has been well described as having 
been a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night in 
the settlement and government of the Northwestern 
States." That feature in the ordinance which has 
1 "Illinois, Historical and Statistical," Vol. I., p. 187. 



22 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

been most conspicuous in the history, not only of the 
Northwest, but of the whole land as well, is that 
which declares that after the year 1800 there should 
be in the States to be formed out of this territory 
" neither slavery nor involuntary servitude otherwise 
than in punishment of crime whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted." 

First of what are now the five States east of the 
Mississippi to be organized as distinct territories were 
Indiana and Ohio. The latter was set off as a Terri- 
tory in 1800, that portion of the general domain west 
and north of it being organized as Indiana. From this 
latter Illinois was in like manner set off in 1809, and 
Michigan in 1824. Wisconsin was at first included 
in Illinois, but when Illinois attained to State organ- 
ization, Wisconsin became part of Michigan Territory. 
In 1836 Wisconsin itself acquired a territorial govern- 
ment, being made, for the time, to include what are 
now the States of Minnesota and Iowa, with a part of 
the Dakotas. 

First of these several territories to be admitted 
into the Union as a State, with the present boun- 
daries, was Ohio in 1802; next, Indiana, 1816; fol- 
lowing this, Illinois in 1818 ; then Michigan in 1837 ; 
and Wisconsin in 1848. 

This outline view of history on the field of our 
present study seemed necessary as preliminary to the 
main purpose. The field as a whole is imperial in 
its proportions, even though but a single section of 
the republic of which it forms a part. During the 



EAKLY TIMES IN THE WEST 23 

century of time elapsing since the first beginning of 
Baptist history within these States, most surprising 
changes are seen, with development iu all elements of 
civilized life rivaling what can be recorded of any 
other portion of the Union — a growth in material 
wealth, in political influence, in social and intellectual 
culture, and in position as among States of the 
republic, such as has fully justified the sanguine pre- 
dictions of those by whom the foundations were laid 
and the first stones of the superstructure put in place. 
The story of Baptist beginning and growth on this 
field is to occupy us in the pages that follow. 



CHAPTEK II 

FIEST ON THE FIELD — IN OHIO AND ILLINOIS 

AMONG the victories achieved in the course of 
history by human hardihood, courage, and re- 
source, victory over the wilderness, and the stern con- 
ditions of life inevitable therein, is by no means the 
least. Nor is it alone in the mastery of that which 
taxes physical energy and endurance, that character 
and capacity are under such circumstances put to the 
test. So soon as the cabin of the pioneer becomes a 
group of such, or on the arrival of a colony at the spot 
where their new homes are to be, societv begins. As 
others arrive, as settlements increase, and progress is 
made toward those conditions which call for political 
organization, law, and rule, during all this nascent 
period there is occasion for the exercise of those 
same qualities of character which in older commun- 
ities win for their possessors position and fame. It may 
be the lot of leaders in the founding and organiza- 
tion of society under such circumstances as are here 
supposed, never to be widely known. They may live 
and die in comparative obscurity. Yet when in a 
search among the perhaps forgotten annals of a new 
community one comes upon traces of men like these 
here in question, he may often have occasion to feel 
24 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 25 

afresh how little after all, in comparison, of the 
world's worth ever comes to the knowledge of the 
world itself. 

We have here to write chiefly of the pioneer min- 
ister. It is a type of ministerial character richly 
deserving of study, both for what it is in itself, and 
for the sake of its lessons for those whose work in the 
ministry may be very differently conditioned and which 
yet must be always substantially the same. In order 
that what we have in hand may be rightly and clearly 
apprehended, it is important to bear in mind that what 
we term pioneer work at the present time is after all 
much unlike, in certain important particulars, what 
the same form of service was when these now pop- 
ulous and flourishing States were still a wilderness. 
While it is true that one who now chooses his field of 
labor upon some frontier, has hardships, discourage- 
ments, and possibly even dangers to face, he still for 
the most part finds himself located in a community 
where there are at least the beginnings of social order 
and possibilities of speedy attainment in all that is 
most to be desired where a home is to be made and 
work to be done. He travels to his field by a speedy 
aud comfortable mode of conveyance. He is in ready 
communication with those he has left behind, and can 
always feel that in emergencies sympathy and help 
are within ready reach, even should there be the in- 
tervention of hundreds of miles of distance. How 
different were all these conditions in the case of those 
men of whom we have here to write, will of course 



26 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

be readily divined, yet can be quite realized only as 
studied in at least a measure of detail. The story is 
worth the telling, if only in order that men whose 
names and whose memory have already grown so dim 
may come once more into the light and be seen in some 
degree for what they were. 

In three of the five States with which this narrative 
is concerned, Baptist history begins very nearly at the 
same date: Ohio, in 1790; Illinois, 1796; Indiana, 
1798. Of churches planted at these dates we shall speak 
more particularly later on. At present our principal 
subject is the men whose names are most prominently 
identified with these beginnings. The scene of the 
very first of such beginnings, the opening page in a 
history whose record is now so full, was what is now 
the site of Cincinnati. We shall quote here, what 
may be taken as an authentic entry on the initial leaf 
of Western Baptist history. 

It was on the 18th of November, 1788, that a company of 
twenty-three men, some of them hardly grown, three women 
and two children (the oldest only five years of age) landed 
from the flatboat on which they had floated down from Pitts- 
burg and began to erect the cabins in which they proposed 
to spend the winter, awaiting the arrival of other relatives — 
fathers and mothers, and wives and children — in the spring. 
Most of these people had come from Essex county, New 
Jersey, and several of them had been members of the old 
Scotch Plains Baptist Church, from which the First Baptist 
Church of New York City had been organized, and of which 
Rev. John Gano, noted for having been among the most effi- 
cient and influential chaplains in the army of the Be volution, 
had been pastor. The leader of that company of pioneers 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 27 

was Major Benjamin Stites, who afterward became so promi- 
nent as a member of the first church (as founded by these 
pioneers), and among them were John (lano and wife, the 
husband a son of the John Gano above mentioned. 1 

" This first settlement on Ohio soil was," says an- 
other authority, 2 " made in perilous times. The In- 
dians made every exertion to cut them off and prevent 
their settlement. They tried by many stratagems to 
decoy them ashore on their passage down the river, 
and after their settlement were continually lurking to 
destroy them." It was history on the Atlantic coast, 
a century and a half earlier, repeating itself ou the 
shores of the Ohio. In this case, as in that of the 
first settlement of New England, " several fell victims 
to the rage of their savage foes/' There being no 
Baptist preacher of their number, they " set up meet- 
ing among themselves, which they conducted in turn." 
Two years later, in 1790, Rev. Stephen Gano visited 
tiiem, baptized three persons, and formed the little 
company into a church. This was the Columbia 
Church, whose site is now included in that of Cin- 
cinnati, and as mentioned in the editorial above 
quoted, " the first Christian church in all the terri- 
tory north and west of the Ohio River." 

1 "We quote from an editorial in the "Journal and Messenger," 
Cincinnati, of July, 1889, describing the dedication of a monu- 
ment erected during the year previous upon the site of the first 
Baptist meeting-house in Ohio, at what is now Cincinnati, and 
built by the church whose early organization is mentioned in the 
text. 

2 Benedict's "History of the Baptists," article " Ohio." 



28 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

A monument commemorative of these events was 
in 1889 erected, by " The Columbia Monument Asso- 
ciation," upon the site of the first house of worship 
built by this church. The house as described was 
two stories high, providing for a gallery, and built 
of hewn logs. The inscription now read upon the 
monument as erected and dedicated in 1889, perpetu- 
ates suitably the initial record in Western Baptist his- 
tory. On the side facing the north : 

To the Pioneers who Landed Near this Spot, November 

18, 1788. 

On the opposite side are the names, twenty-seven 
in all, of " the first boat load." On the west side is 
the following : 

The Baptists of Columbia Township, in 1889, erect this 
pillar to commemorate the heroism and piety of the Baptist 
pioneers of 1788-90. The first church organized in the 
Northwest Territory was the Columbia Baptist Church, or- 
ganized January 20, 1790. Constituent members : Benjamin 
Davis, Mary Davis, John Ferris, Elizabeth Ferris, Joshua 
Reynolds, Amy Reynolds, John S. Gano, Thomas C. Wade ; 
Isaac Ferris, Deacon. 

The east side inscription is as follows : 

The Columbia Baptist Church erected its first house of 
worship on this spot in 1792. The lot contained two acres of 
ground purchased of Benjamin Stites, and was deeded to the 
Baptists of Columbia Township — Because the Lord our God 
hath chosen this spot to put his name there, therefore we 
erect this monument, to be held sacred forever. 

THE COLUMBIA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION. 



FIRST OX THE FIELD 29 

The dedication of the monument occurred on July 
4, 1889, the principal address upon the occasion being 
delivered by Galusha Anderson, s. T. D. ; ll. d., then 
president of Denison University. 

Additional particulars in this connection are sup- 
plied in notes furnished us by Rev. Daniel Shepard- 
son, d. d., of Granville, Ohio, and from which we 
take the following : 

The first Baptist church in the Northwestern Territory was 
constituted in Columbia, five miles from Cincinnati, January 
20, 1790, at the house of Benjamin Davis. It consisted of 
nine members, and three more were received for baptism, and 
were baptized next day by Rev. Stephen G-ano, afterward of 
Providence, B. I. As he had a brother in the little church, 
they hoped he would consent to come West and be their 
pastor. He was elected unanimously, but declined. 

The next May the church chose Rev. John Smith to be 
their pastor. He was a Virginian, a very able, talented man, 
an excellent orator, whose voice could be heard at a great dis- 
tance in the open air, and thus admirably adapted to a new 
country. He was everywhere heard gladly. For several 
years he was very useful, till he became involved in politics, 
the great mistake of his life, as he himself admitted. He 
was a member of the convention for the adoption of a State 
constitution for Ohio, and one of its first senators in Con- 
gress. He became intimately acquainted with Aaron Burr, 
and entertained him for a week or more at his home in Cin- 
cinnati. When Burr was suspected of treason, suspicion fell 
also upon Smith. He was tried in the Senate, and although 
not proved guilty, there were so many against him, that he 
resigned. In 1808 he left Cincinnati for Louisiana, where he 
lived in obscurity for fifteen or sixteen years till his death. 
Some of his enemies were bitter persecutors, but those who 
knew him best had great confidence in him. 



30 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Associated with the name of John Smith is that of 
James Lee, also a Virginian by birth. He was less 
distinguished, but still a man of marked personality. 
Dr. Shepardson says of him : 

He could not read even when of age, but seemed evidently 
called of God to preach the gospel. He had hardly heard a 
sermon till his majority, but was soon after licensed to preach 
by some church in Kentucky. In an excursion through the 
Miami country he called upon Elder Smith on Saturday, and 
on their way to church Sunday morning, Elder Smith learned 
that he was a preacher, and urged him to preach, though 
having been traveling for several weeks he was in no condition 
to appear in a pulpit. But he yielded to entreaty and ven- 
tured to speak to the people both morning and evening. This 
was G-od's introduction for his servant to some twenty-five 
years of usefulness in the Miami Association. 

Another of these pioneers mentioned by Dr. Shep- 
ardson, is Daniel Chirk, "a plain, good man from 
Pennsylvania. " He preached for the Columbia 
Church some five years, in connection with John 
Smith. In the spring of 1792 the house of worship 
was built, as already mentioned. " The worship- 
ers were obliged to go armed to the house of 
God, through fear of the Indians. The next year 
two of their number, Francis Griffin and David Jen- 
nings, were murdered by the savages; nor was there 
any safety till Wayne's victory and the treaty of 
Greenville, in 1794 and 1795. From that time set- 
tlements were made back from the river, and churches 
were formed in many place?.'' To such as those 
already named of ministers first upon the ground in 



FIEST ON THE FIELD 31 

Ohio, might be added in the record we make, such 
faithful and efficient men as Stephen Gard, John 
Corbly, James Sutton, Ezra Ferris, William Jones, a 
native of Wales, Alexander Denniston, at one time a 
pastor in Cincinnati, Wilson Thompson, of whom 
there will be more to say at a later stage in this his- 
tory, Benjamin Stites, " only son of Major Benjamin 
Stites, the original proprietor of Columbia," Samuel 
Eastman, who was also one of the earlier ministers in 
Cincinnati, and S. W. Lynd, of whose marked use- 
fulness as pastor of the Ninth Street Baptist Church, 
in Cincinnati, during fifteen years, 1830-1845, more 
particular mention will be made hereafter. 

Of the laymen who shared fully with this pioneer 
ministry in the responsibilities and labors inseparable 
from such beginnings, two at least should have a 
place in this record, Judge Francis Dunlevy and 
Judge Matthias Cor win. These two men were asso- 
ciated with Rev. Daniel Clark in the church at 
Lebanon as early as 1798. " Francis Dunlevy was 
one of the early Baptists in the Northwestern Terri- 
tory, and in the pioneer history of the territory ac- 
tively shared. He became a member of the Colum- 
bia Church in 1792 ; was one of the conference which 
took the first steps toward organizing the Miami As- 
sociation and, it was said long after, drew up the arti- 
cles of faith agreed upon by the Association. He con- 
tinued an active member of the church in the Miami 
Valley until his death, November 6, 1839, a period 
of forty-seven years, and had been a member of the 



32 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Baptist church some five or six years previous to his 
uniting with the Columbia Church." * 

The ancestors of Judge Dun levy had been among 
the sufferers from persecution for conscience' sake in 
Spain, where the family originated, and in France. The 
father of Judge Dunlevy came from Ireland in 1745, 
settling near Winchester, in Virginia. The parents 
were Presbyterians of the rigid sort, but the son be- 
came a Baptist as a result of personal study of the 
New Testament. Educated at Dickinson College, 
Virginia, for the ministry, he became later doubtful 
of his call to that service — although evidently en- 
dowed with gifts which might have ensured a success- 
ful career — and after teaching a classical school in 
Virginia, and residence for a short period later in 
Kentucky, he came in 1792 to Ohio, making his first 
home at Columbia. A member of the first Legisla- 
ture in the Northwest Territory, a member also of the 
first State Legislature, after Ohio became a State, he 
was chosen in due time presiding judge of the Court 
of Common Pleas, " whose circuit included at that 
time all the Miami Valley from Hamilton and Cler- 
mont counties on the south to Miami and Champaign 
on the north. Here he served as judge fourteen 
years, and though he had at that time to cross both 
Miamis at every season of the year, then without any 
bridges, in all that time he never missed more than 
one court. He often swam these rivers en horseback 

1 "History of the Miami Association," by A. H. Dunlevy, pp. 
147, 148. 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 33 

when very few others would have ventured to cross 
them." 

To men of the stamp of Judge Dunlevy, scarcely if 
at all less than to the hardy and resolute ministry of 
the time, Baptists of the West are indebted for the 
wise and sure way in which foundations were laid. 
Intimately associated with him, and a man of like 
spirit and worth, was Judge Matthias Cor win, who 
came to Ohio from Kentucky in 1798. The name 
was originally Corvinus, and Matthias Corvinus, of 
Hungary, notable in Hungarian history, is supposed 
to have been of his ancestry. To excellent capacity 
for public service, as member of the State Legisla- 
ture and associate judge of Common Pleas, Judge 
Corwin joined peculiar fidelity in the church at 
Lebanon, where he held his membership from the 
time of his arrival in the State till his death in 1829, 
a period of thirty-one years. " When at home he 
was always at his post; and so constant was his at- 
tendance upon meetings of the church that if he was 
missed at any time, when at home, it was known that 
something unusual had detained him. He w T as fre- 
quently one of the messengers of the church in the 
Association, often a messenger of the Association to 
some corresponding body, and on several occasions 
was appointed to prepare circular and corresponding 
letters of the Association as well as the letter of his 
own church." * 

A name found often in earlier records of the de- 

1 " History of the Miami Association," pp. 159, 160. 
C 



34 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

nomination in Ohio, is that of Rev. Hezekiah Johnson, 
father of Professor Franklin Johnson, D. D., of the Di- 
vinity School, University of Chicago. A native of 
Maryland, he was born in 1799. From Maryland 
he came in early life to Kentucky, and from that 
State to Ohio, where he was converted, and in 1824 
was ordained to the ministry at the age of twenty- 
five. His pastorates in Ohio were at Frankfort, 
Greenfield, and other points, while also, as in the case 
of all enterprising preachers at that date, traveling 
and preaching much in destitute sections of the State. 
As his son says of him, " He loved the border ; he 
loved to lay foundations, and when his work of this 
kind seemed to be done in one State, he removed to 
the farthest West, till he reached the Pacific Ocean." 
It was under this kind of impulse that in 1839 he 
removed to Iowa, as one of the first missionaries of 
the Home Mission Society on that field, and in J 845 
to Oregon, in company with Rev. Ezra Fisher, like 
himself under appointment of the society, making 
his home in Oregon City, where he died in ]866. He 
was a man of remarkable activity, interested in all 
the great questions of his time and publishing much 
in the interest of religion and reform. 

We find Mr. Johnson active in Ohio Baptist affairs 
very soon after his ordination. He was one of those 
who entered most heartily into all the purposes of the 
State Convention, upon its organization in 1826. He 
made rapid progress in power as a preacher, and 
when he left Ohio was perhaps the most influential 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 35 

minister of the denomination in that State. He was 
often called into service as preacher at anniversaries of 
the State Convention and of his own Association. 
" In person," writes Dr. Franklin Johnson, " he was 
rather below the medium height, with a very large 
head covered with abundant hair which early became 
gray. His eyes were gray, and of brilliant light, 
though far sunken under his brow. His nose was 
aquiline, and his mouth compressed with firmness. 
His voice was musical and trumpet-toned, and capable 
of carrying to a very great distance either in the 
house or out of doors, where it was often used in 
public speaking." We shall have more to say of him 
in connection with the agitation of such subjects as 
missions, temperance, and anti-slavery in the early 
days of Ohio. 

Two brothers, Rev. George C. Sedwick and Rev. 
William Sedwick, are to be mentioned among those 
earliest in positions of prominence as connected with 
Baptist affairs in Ohio. They were both natives 
of Maryland, born in Calvert County in that State, 
the former in 1785, the latter in 1790. They were 
of Episcopal parentage, but became Baptists in early 
life. George C. Sedwick, having decided to enter the 
ministry, studied at Philadelphia under Dr. William 
Staughton, and was ordained as pastor of the Hart- 
wood Church, in Virginia. In 1820 he removed to 
Ohio, being strongly attracted by prospects of service 
on new fields. His home he made at Zanesville, 
where in 1821 the First Baptist Church was organized 



36 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEKN STATES 

under his ministry. Mr. Sed wick's name is notable 
in Ohio Baptist history by reason of the fact that 
work in that State, under auspices of this denomina- 
tion, alike in education and in journalism, began with 
him. While pastor at Zanesville he founded a school 
which came into some prominence at the time Baptist 
educational policy in the State was under considera- 
tion. He also published a monthly paper, named 
" The Baptist Miscellany/' which appears to have 
been the beginning of Bantist journalism in Ohio. 
He was, besides, the first corresponding secretary of 
the Ohio Baptist State Convention, organized in 1826. 

B-ev. William Sedwick was ordained pastor of the 
Bethel Baptist Church, Virginia, in 1821, having 
had a short previous pastorate at the Navy Yard 
Church, in Washington, D. C. Three years later 
than his brother, in 1823, he removed to Ohio, mak- 
ing his home at Cambridge in that State. Here, like 
his brother at Zanesville, he organized a church, and 
also taught a school. We find his name, subsequently, 
in connection with churches at Salt Lake, Brookfield, 
McConnellsville, Adamsville, and also at Zanesville, 
where he succeeded his brother in 1837. Both these 
men were held in high esteem and greatly trusted by 
their brethren. Their place in denominational affairs 
in Ohio, especially in the early days, was prominent 
and influential. 

Among other names recorded on early pages in the 
history of Ohio Baptists, we find that of Rev. Hub- 
bell Loomis, who died at Upper Alton, 111., in 1872, 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 37 

in the ninety-eighth year of his age, having been 
born in Colchester, Conn., in 1775. Upon his 
father's side he was a descendant of Joseph Loornis, 
who came from England to this country in 1638. 
Mr. Loomis received his college training at Union 
College, Schenectady, in the State of New York, and 
his theological training under Rev. Joel Benedict, of 
Plainfield, Conn. Though educated a Congreara- 
tionalist, he became a Baptist while pastor of the 
Congregational Church in Willington, Conn., where 
he united with the duties of his pastorate, those of a 
teacher, Jared Sparks, afterward so well known as 
president of Harvard College, and as author of a 
" Life of Washington," being one of his pupils. In 
1830, Mr. Loomis removed to Illinois, but we find 
him previously active for a short time in Baptist 
affairs in Ohio, both religious and educational. 

The stately figure of Rev. John Stevens is still, as 
we write, full in the memory of many now living. 
In the year 1831 we find him prominent among Ohio 
Baptists, as editor of " The Baptist Weekly Journal," 
a paper founded by him, and recognized in proceed- 
ings of the Baptist State Convention as denominational 
organ for the State. From that time on until his death 
at Granville, in 1877, then residing with his son, Prof. 
W. A. Stevens, he was among the foremost in promot- 
ing Baptist enterprise within the State, while also in- 
fluential on a still wider scene of activity. He was 
born in Massachusetts, in 1798, graduating at Middle- 
bury College, Yt., in 1821. For two years he served 



38 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

as principal of the Montpelier, Vt., Academy, becom- 
ing then a student at Andover Theological Seminary. 
In 1823 he became a Baptist, his previous connection 
having been with the Congregationalists, and was 
baptized at Salem, by Dr. Lucius Bolles. In Ohio 
he had a large share in the founding of Granville Col- 
lege, now Denison University, where he became pro- 
fessor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in 1838. 
As Dr. Jonathan Going, then the president of the col- 
lege, was active in the general interests of the college, 
the duties of the presidency fell much into the hands 
of Prof. Stevens. Subsequent spheres of service filled 
by him were as district secretary of the American Bap- 
tist Missionary Union in the States of Ohio and Ind- 
iana, secretary of the Western Baptist Education 
Society, and professor of the Greek and Latin lan- 
guages in Denison University. His personality was 
of the kind to be powerfully felt in whatever sphere 
of activity may have engaged him. 

Rev. Timothy R. Cressey was a native of Pomfret, 
Conn., born in 1800. Receiving his education at 
Amherst College and Andover Theological Seminary, 
he came to Ohio in 1835, so fulfilling a long- felt 
desire to devote his life to service on some Western 
field. His first settlement was w T ith the church at 
Columbus, where under his ministry a house of wor- 
ship was built. After seven years service here, he 
w^as engaged two years as pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, Cincinnati, leaving this post to become agent 
of the American and Foreign Bible Society in Ohio, 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 39 

Kentucky, and Indiana. In 1846 he removed to 
Indiana, becoming pastor of the church in Indian- 
apolis, actively engaged meanwhile, besides the erec- 
tion of a house of worship, in labor as corresponding 
secretary of the State Convention, and as a trustee of 
Franklin College. In 1852 he removed to Minnesota, 
the third Baptist minister to enter that new Territory. 
After a pastorate of two years in St. Paul, he gave 
himself up to work more thoroughly missionary in 
character, traveling much and preaching in destitute 
places. Two years, from 1861 on, he gave to his 
country as chaplain of the second regiment of Minne- 
sota volunteers ; having his home and work, later, in 
Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and dying at Des Moines 
in 1870, at the home of his son in that city. It had 
been an active life, w T ith deep and lasting impressions 
left in Western Baptist history. His second wife was 
the daughter of Dr. Jonathan Going, to whom he was 
married while pastor at Columbus, Ohio. 

Among Baptist pioneers in Illinois no men fill a 
more conspicuous place, or in their personality are 
more notable than the Lemen father and brothers, the 
former of whom came to what was then not even yet a 
Territory in 1786. The early history of Baptists in 
Illinois centers at the point where this " Lemen family" 
made its home, furnished, in the father of the family, 
the most prominent person in the group of first candi- 
dates for baptism, and founded the first church in Illi- 
nois Territory, organized the first Association, were 
leaders in anti- slavery championship years before the 



40 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

word " abolitionist " had been adopted into the lan- 
guage, while three of them at least were members of the 
State Legislature, adding to political leadership an 
active zeal in the Christian ministry yet more earnest 
and persistent. They were typical pioneer preachers, 
uniting with what is characteristic of such, that ad- 
venturous, ardent, and enterprising spirit w T hich al- 
ways singles out the leaders of a new community. 
When it is remembered that with the Lemens were 
associated such men as John M. Peck, W. F. Boya- 
kin, B. B. Hamilton, Porter C. Clay, half-brother 
of Henry Clay, James Pulliam, Ebenezer Eodgers, 
Samuel Baker, and Joel Sweet, it will be realized 
under what vigorous auspices the denominational 
history in Illinois began. 

Of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the father of this family, 
James Lemen, Sr., was born in Berkeley county, Vir- 
ginia, in the autumn of 1758. His grandfather had 
come to Virginia from the north of Ireland. His 
father belonged to the Church of England, then 
dominant in Virginia. James himself was trained 
under Presbyterian influence, his father dying when 
the son was but a year old, and his mother marrying 
for her second husband a strict Presbyterian, believed 
to have been named John Gibbons. The young lad 
at eighteen years of age, in 1777, enlisted in the 
American army under Washington, and going North 
was present at the battle of White Plains, but obtain- 
ing his discharge before the war closed, returned to 
Virginia and made himself a home near Wheeling, 



FIEST ON THE FIELD 41 

West Virginia, where, in 1783, he married Catherine 
Ogle. Her father had also served in the war of the 
Revolution, and was commissioned captain, as one 
informant states, 1 in June 1777, by Patrick Henry. 
We have the same authority for saying that Mr. 
Lemen was at one time visited " bv an assent of 
Aaron Burr, in the interest of his New World's em- 
pire, being offered a large reward for his co-operation. 
This however he refused, aud denounced the scheme 
as disgraceful." 

In his home near Wheeling Mr. Lemen became, 
though not himself a Baptist, at least in member- 
ship, in some way associated with a Baptist preacher 
named James Torrence, with whom, as the vigorous, 
opponent of African slavery, originated what came to 
be called " the Torrence rule," and which played a 
somewhat notable part in the early Baptist history 
of Illinois. The " rule " was to this effect : " African 
slavery is a sin against God and humanity ; therefore 
no slave-owner or advocate of slavery shall be allowed 
membership in this church." These anti-slavery con- 
victions appear to have supplied, with Mr. Lemen, 
some considerable part of the motive which prompted 
a removal from the slave State of Virginia, to what 
was indeed then a part of Virginia, but which he may 
have hoped might some day be in this respect a home 
better suited to his mind. His wife's father, Captain 
Joseph Ogle, had already, in 1785, removed to that 

1 Mr. James P. Lemen, of Hastings, Minn., a grandson of 
James Lemen here spoken of 



42 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

part of the Northwest Territory having the name of 
Illinois, where the French settlement, Kaskaskia, had 
for some time existed. Thither James Lemen fol- 
lowed in the spring of 1786, by what was then, in 
that section of the country, the only practicable mode 
of travel for considerable distances, the flatboat down 
the Ohio to its junction with the Mississippi, and 
then up the strong current of the mightier river to 
the point of destination. 

One incident of the voyage is thus related i 1 " The 
second night the river (the Ohio) fell while they were 
tied to the shore, his boat lodged on a stump, careened 
and sunk, by which accident he lost his provisions, 
^chattels, etc. His oldest son, Robert, a boy three 
years old, floated on the bed on which he lay, which 
his father caught by the corner, and so saved his life. 
Though left destitute of provisions and other neces- 
saries, James Lemen was not the man to be discour- 
aged. He had energy and perseverance" — and he 
went his way with the poor remnant of his earthly 
possessions saved from the wreck. 

The new home of " the Lemen Family," with 
those who had accompanied them, was fixed at a 
place which received the significant name New De- 
sign, in that section of the present State of Illinois 
where Kaskaskia, oldest of Illinois towns, stands, 
and a few miles southeast of Waterloo, in Monroe 

1 By Rev. B. B. Hamilton, in a lecture upon "The Lemen 
Family," written and delivered by request, before a Ministers' 
Institute, held at Upper Alton, 111, 



FIRST OX THE FIELD 43 

County. 1 Shortly after their arrival at the new home, 
this remote colony was visited by a Baptist preacher, 
Rev. James Smith, from Kentucky. From him the 
first sermon by a Baptist preacher in what is now Illi- 
nois was heard. Under his ministry several conver- 
sions occurred. No church organization was, however, 
made, and the preacher, having been made captive 
by the Indians, on his release returned to Kentucky. 
Religious meetings, nevertheless, were regularly held, 
and a sermon read, when no preacher could be had. 
One of the number, Shadrach Bond, afterward 
known as Judge Bond, most often officiated. On 

1 In "a list of Capt. Piggot's Compaq in the first regiment of 
militia of the county of St Clair, the 26th day of August, 1790," 
printed in a historical collection entitled, " Early Chicago and 
Illinois," we find the names of Nathaniel Hull, Shadrach Bond, 
Sr., Isaac Enix, Joseph Ogle and James Lemen. Of Hull, the 
editor of the work named says, in a note, that he was one of the 
first AmericaDs in Illinois. He was a noted leader in Indian 
warfare, and in 1793, commanded a party of eight whites who 
defeated twice their number of red men in a desperate conflict at 
the Big Spring, in what is now Monroe county. Of Bond it is 
said: "One of Clark's (George Eogers Clark's) soldiers, came 
to the Illinois in 1781, was a member of the territorial legis- 
lature, judge of the Court of Common Pleas of St. Clair county, 
and uncle of Shadrach Bond, first Governor of the State of Illi- 
nois." Shadrach Bond, Sr., will be found further on in our 
narrative to have become later a member of the Baptist church 
at New Design. Of Isaac Enix, a note in the same connection 
$i\ys : "Probably Isaac Enochs, a Kentuckian, celebrated for 
his contests with the Indians, and as the first convert in Illinois 
to the Baptist persuasion." Of Joseph Ogle a note says that 
"he was one of Nathaniel Hull's party in the Indian fight at 
Big Spring, in 1791." Of James Lemen, "A Virginian, soldier 
of the Kevolution, one of Hull's party at Big Spring, and a 
leading Baptist preacher," 



44 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

one of these occasions, as Dr. J. M. Peck informs us, 
" in December, J 793, or January, 1794, while Judge 
Bond was officiating in this informal manner on the 
Sabbath, a stranger came into the meeting. He was 
a large, portly man, with dark hair, a florid com- 
plexion and regular features. His dress was in 
advance of the deerskin hunting-shirt and Indian 
moccasins of the settlers, his countenance grave and 
his aspect so serious that the mind of the reader was 
inspired with the thought he was a Christian man 
and perhaps a preacher, and an invitation was given 
him to close the exercises, ' if he was a praying man. 7 
The stranger knelt and made an impressive and 
solemn prayer." 

This stranger was Rev. Josiah Dodge, from Nel- 
son county, Kentucky, on a visit to his brother, Dr. 
Israel Dodge, of St. Genevieve, Mo., father of Henry 
Dodge, in later years Governor of Wisconsin. Mr. 
Dodge remained for some time in the settlement and 
in February, the ice having been cut in Fountain 
Creek near by, four persons were baptized by him : 
James Lemen, Catherine, his wife, John Gibbons, and 
Isaac Enochs. These were the first baptisms in 
what was then the Territory of Illinois. In the 
spring this little company of Baptists was visited by 
Rev. David Badgeley, from Virginia. Arriving 
early in May, he remained until the close of the 
month. Under his preaching there were more con- 
versions. Mr. Joseph Chance, "lay elder," from 
Kentucky, also arrived about this time. By these 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 45 

a church was in due time, at some date in the year 
1796, organized, the first in Illinois, of twenty-eight 
members. 

This is not the place for details in this direction 
further than may be necessary to bring into clear view 
the conditions under which the Lemens, father and 
sons, of whom we here mainly write, began their 
work as preachers. The father, soon after his bap- 
tism, was licensed to preach, and as they grew up, 
five of his six sons, James, Josiah, Moses, Joseph, 
and William, also became preachers. The homestead 
then made is still standing, says Rev. B. B. Hamil- 
ton, " near the old hill road between Kaskaskia and 
St. Louis, built first of logs, and then a brick wall 
on the outside, which made a singularly strong forti- 
fication." 

And as such it was needed. It was genuine pio- 
neer life which these first Baptists in Illinois, as was 
equally true of other States, were called to lead. One 
who not many years later was associated with them in 
service, 1 thus describes the surroundings amid which 
they lived : " Many a family, long after the New 
Design was settled, was exterminated, tomahawked, 
and scalped by the Indians. The cougar, the coyote, 
the bear, the Indian, had to be met in those days, by 
one class of men, while another class turned the sod, 
tilled the soil, reaped the grain, and still another 
had to plant, build, and sustain churches. All of 

1 Rev. "W. F. Boyakin, still (1894) living in Kansas, at eighty- 
four years of age. 



46 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

these onerous duties were often performed by one and 
the same class. The same man went to the place of 
worship clad in a suit of dressed buckskin, with 
moccasins on his feet, shot-pouch swung to his side, 
and the ever-present rifle on his shoulder, and 
preached the gospel to the few neighbors gathered 
inside the log-cabin while others were stationed as 
pickets." 

This was not a school for educating a polished 
ministry ; but it produced a class of men who of all 
men deserved to be styled " good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ " ; ready for service on all occasions, aud 
trained in a species of eloquence which, however 
quaint in some of its characteristics, was still found 
suited to impress men of high intelligence and cul- 
ture. James Lemen, Jr., after he became a member 
of the State Senate, preached before the Legislature in 
a way to delight and move his hearers. His father, 
a man of strong native po vers, was less gifted than 
his son in those qualities of the imagination and of 
ready utterance which make men eloquent yet was 
an effective preacher, while he was also a man of 
affairs whose influence was felt far and wide. He 
was an active justice of the peace under the terri- 
torial government during many years, and for a time 
one of the judges of the county court ; this gave 
him, in his later years, the title by which he was 
commonly known as Judge Lemen. His personal 
appearance is thus described : " You ask what kind 
of a man was he ? I answer ' rough/ He had a 



FIKST ON THE FIELD 47 

lisp in his articulation. His sandy hair was bushy 
in the extreme. In fact, there was a tradition, which 
used to be quoted as a good joke, that the seed of the 
cockle-burr was brought from Virginia in the hair of 
Judge Lemen. His education was limited, his train- 
ing being mostly that of a pioneer in the wilderness. 
His expounding of the word was characteristic, like 
himself, for he did not claim to be a polished workman, 
and in the application of the truth he asked for no 
quarter and he gave none." 1 

Of Dr. J ,M. Peck, as of others, there will be occa- 
sion to speak, in other connections, more at large than 
can be attempted here. Born in Litchfield, Conn., in 
1789, a descendant of one of those by whom the 
New England colonies were planted, with imperfect 
advantages of early education, reared as a Congrega- 
tionalist, but becoming a Baptist through independent 
study of the New Testament, ordained at Catskill, 
New York, in 1813, after a brief pastorate at Amenia, 
in that State, he removed in 1816 to Philadelphia, 
where he studied theology under Dr. Staughton, and 
having later caught the missionary spirit from Dr. 
Luther Rice, devoted his life thenceforth to mis- 
sionary service in the West. His home was first in 
St. Louis and St. Charles, Mo., but after some years he 
fixed it finally at Rock Spring, 111. From this time 

1 Kev. B. B. Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton was born at New De- 
sign, the home of the first Baptist church in Illinois. He died 
Nov. 11, 1894, at considerably past his three-score years and ten. 
He was a man of vigorous mind and retentive memory, and an 
authority in matters of early Baptist history in his native State. 



48 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

onward he becomes a principal figure in Illinois Bap- 
tist history, until his death in 1858. " He was," says 
Dr. Sprague, in his " Annals of the American Baptist 
Pulpit/' " undoubtedly one of the most remarkable 
self-made men of his day." 

Pioneer Baptists in Northern Illinois come upon 
the field at nearly the same date as that of the organ- 
ization of the American Baptist Home Mission Soci- 
ety. Of Rev. Allen B. Freeman, we shall speak in 
connection with beginnings at Chicago. Following 
him, in his short career, are others of whom due men- 
tion should be made in this place. 

First, we may name Rev. J. E. Ambrose, a native 
of New Hampshire, his paternal grandfather having 
been one of the Baptist pioneers in that State, and a 
contemporary of Dr. Baldwin. The family having 
removed to the State of New York while he was yet 
a child ; he found his first Sunday-school in Albany, 
but later, at the age of sixteen, was converted at 
Rochester, and w r as baptized by Rev. Eleazar Savage, 
then pastor of the First Baptist Church in that city. 
Five years later, in 1831, he was licensed to preach 
by the church in Rochester. After spending one 
term in study at Hamilton, he entered upon active 
service in " protracted meetings," as they were then 
called, in places like Rome, Parma, and Marion, in 
Central and Western New York. His further pur- 
pose had been to prepare himself for the Burman mis- 
sion, and with that view he returned to Hamilton. 
A failure of health, however, compelled the abandon- 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 49 

raent of this purpose. A year having been spent in 
study with Rev. Joseph Elliott, at Wyoming, he ac- 
cepted a commission from the Home Mission Society, 
for service in Chicago and its vicinity, arriving on 
the field in June, 1834. 

After the death of Mr. Freeman, Mr. Ambrose, for 
a time supplied the church in Chicago. His principal 
service, however, was in the adjacent region. Popu- 
lation was flowing in, and there was abundant work 
for the zealous and devoted missionary who, for a 
time, was almost alone upon the field. Under his 
ministry churches were organized at Plainfield, Bata- 
via, St. Charles, Elgin, and Dundee. In the subse- 
quent history of the entire region where these churches, 
with so many others in course of time were planted, 
and more especially in those discussions of public 
questions which later so much occupied the attention 
of thoughtful and earnest men, Mr. Ambrose actively 
shared. 

Rev. A. J. Joslyn came to Northern Illinois in 
1838, making his home first at Crystal Lake, where 
his occupation for a time was that of a farmer. De- 
ciding to enter the ministry, he studied for a while 
with a neighboring pastor, and in 1842, began his 
career of service at Warrenville. Called to Elgin 
after some two years, he remained pastor of the church 
in that place for eleven years, becoming known in 
that time as one of the most effective and influential 
ministers of his own denomination in the State. His 
public spirit and his zeal in the interests of reform 

D 



50 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

made him conspicuous in the debates and controver- 
sies of that period of agitation which preceded the 
war. In 1856, after a year of agency service for 
Shurtleff College, he removed to Chicago, where, 
under his ministry, the Union Park, now the Fourth 
Baptist Church, was organized. His health failing, 
he returned to Elgin and entered into journalism as 
editor of the "Gazette," in that city. He died in 
1868, after years of painful decline. 

Connected with the history of early denominational 
growth in the northern section of the State is the 
name of Rev. Thomas Powell. His arrival in Illinois 
occurred in 1836, while Dr. Jonathan Going was still 
the secretary of the society whose commission he bore. 
His woik was that of a missionary in the fullest sense 
of the term. Although his station was at Vermil- 
lionville, he was called upon from near and far, in the 
dearth of ministers, to hold meetings, collect the scat- 
tered flocks, and organize churches. No less than 
thirteen such churches are named as thus formed : 
Granville, Mount Palatine, La Salle, Ottawa, La- 
moille, Tiskilwa, Paw Paw Grove, Harding, Fremont, 
La Marsh, Mount Pleasant, Dixon, Rock Island. 
The Illinois River Association, out of which subse- 
quently grew four others — the Ottawa, Rock River, 
the East Illinois River, and the McLean — was organ- 
ized under his leadership. Mr. Powell's efficiency in 
such forms of labor was in due time recognized in his 
appointment as agent of the Home Mission Society in 
Illinois, rendering in that post most valuable service. 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 51 

Among those active on the field during the same 
period may be named, also, Rev. Burton B. Car- 
penter, afterward for many years pastor at Griggs- 
ville, in the central portion of the State, and a leader 
in denominational affairs there. He was ordained at 
Dixon, where he continued in service four years and 
six months. He was " small of stature, but mighty 
in the Scriptures, and beloved by all who knew 
him." J 

In May, 1834, came to Illinois Rev. J. F. Tolman, 
father of Rev. C. F. Tolman, d. d., and of Mrs. A. 
M. Bacon, both of whom filled during so many years 
positions of signal usefulness as representing interests 
of foreign missions on this field ; also of Rev. John 
N. Tolman, long a faithful and useful minister in 
Central Illinois and elsewhere. Mr. Tolman, a man 
of strong intellect, a student and an author, was, until 
physical infirmity made active service impossible, one 
of the most efficient pioneer ministers in Northern Illi- 
nois. When laid aside from such service, he continued 
to interest himself deeply in all aspects of the work, 
and was helpful with his pen when his voice could no 
longer be used in that behalf. Like things should be 
said of Rev. N. Warriner, who came to Illinois in 
1842; of Rev. Ichabod Clark, who came in 1848, his 
chief service in the State being as pastor of the First 
Baptist Church in Rockford ; and of Rev. Charles 
Hill Roe, who came from England in 1851, and in 

1 Mr. J. T. Little, in a paper read at the "roll-call" of the 
Baptist church in Dixon, 111., October 22, 1893. 



52 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IK WESTERN STATES 

that same year became pastor of the Baptist churc_ 
in Belvidere, fulfilling there and elsewhere a ministry 
of distinguished usefulness. 

There would be much to say if limitations of space 
permitted, of laymen active in the early Baptist his- 
tory of Illinois. Their record belongs in connection 
with that, in each section of the State, which was 
most significant of Christian fidelity and denomina- 
tional progress. One by one their names have nearly 
all disappeared from the roll of the living, yet should 
by no means fail to appear in the history of what God 
has wrought through the faithful men who have loved 
and served him on this Western field. In the early 
history of the State itself, such men as Hon. J. B. 
Thomas, Hon. Cyrus Edwards, Hon. E. G. Miner, 
General Mason Brayman, distinguished by eminent 
service in the civil war, and since discharging impor- 
tant civil functions, at one time as governor of Idaho ; 
in Chicago, Hon. Charles Walker, whose name be- 
longs with those who shared most largely in setting 
the young city on its career of prosperity and renown ; 
Hon. L. D. Boone, M. D., at one time mayor of the city ; 
Hon. Samuel Hoard, C. N. Holden, Esq., and Cyrus 
Bentley, Esq. ; outside the city, Deacon Daniel Hai^h, 
of Pavillion, father of the secretary, Dr. W. M. Haigh ; 
R. W. Padelford, of Elgin, for full half a century 
serving as clerk of the Chicago Baptist Association ; 
E. K. W. Cornell, of the same place, acti-ve in church 
affairs from a very early date ; Deacon Eli as Mabie, 
of Belvidere, father of the secretary, Dr. H. C. 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 53 

Mabie ; S. P. Crawford, Esq., of Rockford, a pillar 
in the church there from a very early day. There is 
scarcely a page of denominational history, in religion 
or in education, but, if fully written, would somewhere 
enroll these and many other such names as among 
those of men most vigilant, most active, most ready 
for either service or sacrifice. 



CHAPTER III 

FIRST ON THE FIEED — IN INDIANA, MICHIGAN, 
AND WISCONSIN 

THE Baptist pioneers of Indiana were from Ken- 
tucky. As the first church planted by them, in 
1798, was at Silver Creek, now Charleston, only some 
fifteen miles from Louisville, beginnings in Indiana 
may be assumed to have been simply by a process of 
quiet migration. The man chiefly active in organiz- 
ing the church was Rev. Isaac Edwards. Distinction 
is won for the church itself by the fact that among its 
early members was Isaac McCoy, "the Judson of 
Indian missions/' and his sister, Eliza McCoy, as 
active and devoted as himself. How much the inter- 
est in missions was with them a family trait, may 
be inferred from the fact that this church at the time 
when mission societies, Sunday-schools, and temper- 
ance societies were the objects of anti-mission denun- 
ciation, felt called upon to " admonish " Deacon John 
McCoy, the father, for his zeal in these directions; 
Elder Wilson declaring that all such associations were 
" of the devil and were doing his work." The reply 
of the deacon was : " You might as well try to turn 
the Ohio River around, as to stop the progress of these 
societies." 
54 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 55 

Conspicuous among early Baptists in Indiana were 
three brothers, John, William, and Achilles Yawter. 
We shall use freely, in speaking of these and others, 
the information furnished us by President W. T. Stott, 
D. D., of Franklin College. The most efficient of 
the three was Mr. John Vawter. " He was a business 
man as well as a minister," an example, accordingly, 
of that variety of capacity and of service seen often 
in the pioneer minister, who finds work of all kinds 
to be done in the new community where he becomes 
the natural and recognized leader. " He was the first 
magistrate of the city of Madison, was made sheriff 
of Jefferson and Clark counties, and was finally ap- 
pointed United States marshal for the State of In- 
diana. He was the founder of the town of Vernon. 
In 1831 he was elected to the State Legislature, and in 
1836 was sent to the State Senate. He was made 
vice-president of the convention that nominated 
President Zachary Taylor. In his day he was per- 
haps the most influential man among the Baptist 
churches and Associations of Southern Indiana. His 
individuality was very marked. He spoke out just 
what he thought, whether it was agreeable to those 
who heard or not. He hated dogs and tobacco. He 
has been known to arrest the sermon he was preach- 
ing long enough to put a dog out of the meeting- 
house. An Association was to be held with his home 
church. He prepared for a large number of guests. 
Out in the grape arbor he had several open boxes 
filled with sawdust. When the brethren came for 



56 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

entertainment he requested those who used tobacco to 
use the arbor, the others the house. He sympathized 
with the old Baptists in their dread of ' new-fangled 
notions ' in the church, — such as instrumental music, — 
and not till his later years was he a decided advocate 
for missions. He died in August, 1872, at the age 
of ninety years. The father of these Yawter broth- 
ers was also a zealous Baptist minister." 

Eev. J. L. Eichmond, m. d., maternal grandfather 
of Prof. C. E. Henderson, d. d., of the University 
of Chicago, was a man of more education than was 
usual with pioneer Baptist ministers. A native of 
Massachusetts, where he was born in 1785, he was 
not only a classical and mathematical scholar, but 
" quite a master of the Greek New Testament." In 

1832 we find him a lecturer in a medical college in 
Cincinnati, preaching as opportunity offered. In 

1833 he came to Indiana, and in 1835 became pastor 
of the Baptist church in Indianapolis. In the war 
of 1812 he held the rank of surgeon in the army and 
was in service on the lakes. " He was a man of en- 
terprise, having a foremost place in the planting and 
training of churches and the founding of educational 
institutions." 

Among laymen prominent in the early Baptist his- 
tory of Indiana may be named Judge Jesse S. Hol- 
man, father of Hon. William O. Holman, of the 
United States House of Eepresentatives. He was 
from Kentucky, born at Frankfort in that State in 
1783, where also he studied law and was first admit- 



FIEST ON THE FIELD 57 

ted to practice. Being an opponent of slavery, he left 
Kentucky and came to Indiana in 1811, selecting a 
site for his new home " on one of the beautiful hills 
overlooking the Ohio. He named it Yerdestan, and 
it has been the home of the Holmans from that day 
to this. He was a man of elegant tastes, and it is 
said that his flower garden was the most beautiful in 
all Southern Indiana. Gov. Harrison commissioued 
him sheriff of Dearborn and Jefferson counties. In 
1814 he was elected to the Legislature of the Indiana 
Territory, and in 1816, the year Indiana became a 
State, was appointed presiding judge of the second 
and third districts, becoming in the same year judge 
of the Supreme Court in the State. The. organization 
of the Aurora Church was due to his influence." 

Aurora was the center of foreign missions in those 
days, the spirit of missions pervading that section of 
the State in many directions. " Not far away was the 
Sparta Church, with John Givens as its eloquent young 
minister, seeing whom in the pulpit Lemuel Moss first 
formed the purpose of becoming a Baptist minister. 
From the same church came Samuel Dow, who at his 
death, left the Missionary Union eight thousand dol- 
lars." 

Judge Holman was evidently an active, as well as 
a consistent Baptist. He "traveled a good deal, 
mostly on horseback, to meet his brethren in their 
religious gatherings. He helped to form the State 
Convention of Baptists, and was a vigorous worker 
in the early struggles of Franklin College. Indeed, 



58 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

he was once elected president of the college, but found 
it impossible to serve." 

Rev. William T. Stott, grandfather of President 
Stott, came to Indiana in 1815, having been born in 
1789. He was pastor of the Vernon Church for 
fifty years, with but one or two intervals. He was 
not a scholar, but he knew the Bible as well as any 
man of his opportunities. He was also a keen ob- 
server of human nature. There was that about him 
which drew men to him, and which made them recog- 
nize him as a leader. He planted scores of churches 
and baptized about one thousand who were converted 
under his ministry. His travels on preaching excur- 
sions were far and wide over the State, his gun often 
being his companion, for the killing of game or for 
protection against the Indians. In preaching, the 
Spirit often so possessed him that he was mighty in 
his eloquence. Men and women would come many 
miles to hear him. " During his last illness he was 
unconscious, but had a lucid interval during which he 
rehearsed his conversion, religious experience, and call 
to the ministry, speaking of his great love to the 
churches." His death occurred in 1877. 

Among those to whose missionary labors the plant- 
ing of churches in Indiana was largely due, was Rev. 
William M. Pratt, r>. d., who came to the West after 
closing his course of study at Hamilton. His wife 
was a daughter of Rev. John Peck, still so well 
remembered among the churches in Central New 
York. He came first to Crawfordsville, as a mis- 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 59 

sionary of the American Baptist Home Mission So- 
ciety, in 1839. Of churches which he aided in or- 
ganizing, now among the strongest in the State, may 
be named Crawfordsville, South Bend, Mishawaka, 
Logansport, and La Fayette. " It is said that his 
first sermon at La Fayette was in a tavern, and that 
he used the bar for a pulpit. He was a superior busi- 
ness man, and has done good service in connection 
with Franklin College, and with the college at George- 
town, Ky." 

Kev. Lewis Morgan, father of General T. J. 
Morgan, Indian Commissioner under President Har- 
rison, and now (1895) Secretary of the American 
Baptist Home Mission Society, was a native of Ten- 
nessee, and born in 1788. In 1816 he came to In- 
diana, making his home in the forests of Shelby 
County. " He w T as early a member of the State Con- 
vention and was one of the prime movers in the 
establishment of Franklin College, becoming, in fact, 
its first financial agent." As at one time an agent of 
the American Sunday-school Union, he had much 
experience in dealing with the spirit of opposition to 
all such enterprises, which once so permeated Indiana, 
as well as other Western States. In that connection 
we shall have occasion to speak of him again. 

Of Isaac McCoy, also, there will be more to say in 
another place. Born in Fayette County, Pa., in 1784, 
of Scotch-Irish parents, he was brought to Kentucky 
while a child of six years, the family moving to Shelby 
County in that State in 1790. He received baptism 



60 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

when seventeen years of age, at the hands of Rev. 
William Waller, uniting with the Buck Creek Church. 
In 1803 he was married to Christiana, daughter of 
Captain E. Polk. In this connection a fact is men- 
tioned illustrative of those coincidences in human life 
which are often so interesting. " Many years prior to 
this, Captain Polk being absent on a campaign against 
the Indians, his wife and three children whom he had 
left in a fort in Nelson County, were taken prisoners 
by the Ottawa Indians, and conveyed to the Northern 
lakes, where, after much suffering for several years, 
they were found by their anxious and vigilant hus- 
band and father, and brought back to their own home. 
It is somewhat remarkable that a daughter of Captain 
Polk, born subsequently to this captivity, should have 
gone with her husband, Isaac McCoy, among those 
very Ottawa Indians, to carry them the glorious gos- 
pel of the blessed Lord." * 

Mr. McCoy's first home in Indiana was at Vin- 
cennes. In 1804 he removed to Clark County, and 
having united with the Silver Creek Baptist Church, 
was by that church licensed to preach. After some 
six years, having in the meantime made his home at 
Maria Creek, not far from Vincennes, he was there 
ordained, his father, Elder William McCoy, and 
Elder George Waller conducting the service. Of this 
church he remained pastor, although with various 
missionary journeys to Kentucky and Missouri, until, 
having received in 1817 an appointment from the 

1 Sprague's "Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit," p. 542. 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 61 

Board of the Baptist Triennial Convention, he devoted 
himself from that time until his death, in 1 846, entirely 
to work among the Indians. 

One who knew Mr. McCoy well, Joseph Chambers, 
Esq., of Maria Creek, Indiana, has said of him : " Mr. 
McCoy had but very limited advantages for education, 
though by his own indefatigable effort in after life he 
acquired a large amount of useful knowledge, and be- 
came highly respectable, even as a writer. When he 
beo;an his ministry it must be acknowledged that his 
preaching was not very acceptable, and though every- 
body regarded him as an excellent man, some might 
have thought that his legitimate vocation was hardlv 
in the pulpit. He, however, became a decidedly able 
preacher/' l Dr. Rufus Babcock says of him : " In 
person he was tall and slender, stoopiug considerably 
as he walked, but sometimes rising to erectness in his 
more animated addresses. His utterances were rapid 
and earnest, and in portraying the wrongs to which 
our aborigines have been subjected, he often became 
pathetic and eloquent. He loved the gospel of Christ, 
and preached it with fidelity whenever an opportnnity 
presented." It was in improving such an opportunity 
that he preached the first Baptist sermon ever heard 
in Chicago. This was on October 9, 1825. 

Of those first in Michigan, Dr. Haskell says : 2 

The "strictly pioneer Baptists" come to view most dis- 
tinctly in Oakland County. In 1818 the brave advance 

1 Sprague's "Annals," p. 545. 

2 "Fifty Years of Michigan Baptist History," by Kev. S. Has- 
kell, D. D. 1886. 



62 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

guard cut their way through thick forests from Detroit to 
where the city of Pontiac now stands, and commenced the 
first inland farm settlement in Michigan. The first of these 
settlers that are mentioned as Baptists are Orison Allen and 
wife, who came to the site of the city of Pontiac in 1819, 
Shubael Atherton, Lemuel Taylor, Samuel Gibbs, Philip 
Marlatt, Hiram Calkins, Eleazer Millard, and others. In their 
hands our denominational flag seems to have been brought 
into the Territory, and over their rude cabins, built on the 
ground where we are met to-day x that symbol of our faith 
was first displayed. As early as 1821 these brethren and their 
families met for worship on alternate Sundays in Pontiac and 
Troy. Sister Abner Davis, now residing at Port Huron, 
speaks of meeting with them at the house of Deacon Gribbs, 
about two miles east of the present city of Pontiac, where the 
church of Pontiac was organized in 1822. Her husband, not 
then a Christian, but subsequently and for many years an 
honored deacon of the church, accompanied her, and together 
they wended their way through the forest by an Indian trail, 
crossing the bridgeless river upon a log. 

After four years of what must have been a lonely 
life amid these wilderness surroundings, the little band 
at Pontiac was cheered by a visit from Rev. Elon 
Galusha, "the ardent and gifted missionary of 
the New York Baptist State Convention/ 7 of which 
organization Dr. Haskell speaks as " our first and 
long faithful mother in the Lord.' 7 He proceeds to 
say : " Brother Galusha came to Pontiac on an itin- 
erant mission in 1822. Here he preached in the wil- 
derness, and led in the organization of the first Baptist 

1 The Michigan Baptist State Convention, meeting at Pontiac 
in the autumn of 1886, and before which the paper from which 
we quote was read. 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 63 

church in the Territory.'' The first Baptist minister 
of whom we learn as resident in the Territory is 
Orestes Taylor, who made his home at Stony Creek, 
in Oakland County. He was never ordained, hold- 
ing only the office of deacon, and preaching as a 
licentiate. He is spoken of "asa good and useful 
man, the head of a large family, for whom his 
hands were diligent, and who perpetuated his useful- 
ness by their own work in the churches.' 7 

In the summer of 1824 the church at Pontiac found 
a pastor in the person of Rev. Elkanah Comstock, the 
first ordained minister to become thus a resident in 
Michigan. He had volunteered to the Convention of 
New York for missionary service in this then remote 
region. A native of New London, Conn., he be- 
longed to a family bearing a name noted among sea- 
faring men, while one of the number attained to 
the honors of authorship as a writer of books upon 
chemistry and natural philosophy. Besides his ser- 
vice at Pontiac, Mr. Comstock saw under his labors 
the organization of two other churches, at Troy, in 
1824, and at Farmington, in 1826, both in the same 
section of the State as Pontiac. His health failing 
after ten years of faithful and self-sacrificing service, 
he returned to his early New England home, and 
there died. 

The second ordained Baptist minister to settle in 
Michigan, Rev. Moses Clark, is noted in the denomi- 
national history of that State as having preached the 
first sermon heard in what is now Ann Arbor, near 



64 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

which place he made his home in 1825. He led in 
the organization of the church at Ann Arbor, in 
1828, and was its first pastor. His record is that of 
a good and useful man. " The third pastor that we 
learn of," says Dr. Haskell, "was Rev. John But- 
tolph, who settled in Troy in 1826. He died with 
this church the same year. His memory was long 
perpetuated as that of a loved and successful pastor, a 
character that was reproduced in his son, also one of 
the early ministers in the State, who died while yet 
young, and sleeps by his father's side in Troy." 

Connected with the beginnings of Baptist history in 
Detroit is the name of Rev. Henry Davis, who, upon 
the completion of his studies at Hamilton, was drawn 
westward by his interest in work on mission fields. 
Detroit is described as being, near the time of these 
beginnings, "a muddy and cheap village of one 
thousand five hundred inhabitants," although its 
career of growth into what it now is must have begun 
not long after. It was in 1827 that Mr. Davis, with 
his young wife, like-minded with himself, came to 
Detroit. There was already an academy in the place, 
where meetings were first held, and baptisms in the 
river soon became a spectacle awakening popular in- 
terest. A church was organized in 1827. " The 
New York Baptist Convention stood nurse to the 
babe, Elisha Tucker of Fredonia, presiding and 
preaching." Of laymen who were leaders then and 
long after, such names are mentioned as Francis P. 
Browning, R. C. Smith, S. N. Kendrick, and others. 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 65 

Other of the early ministers in the Territory and 
State were identified with enterprises such as Indian 
missions, education, and State missions, of which 
mention will be made in their place. Isaac McCoy, 
as missionary to the Indians, came to Michigan from 
Indiana in 1822, Rev. Leonard Slater in 1826, Rev. 
A. Bingham in 1828. 

As connected with beginnings in education, the 
name of Rev. Thomas W. Merrill stands prominent. 
His life and service in Michigan cover a period of 
almost half a century, his arrival in the Territory 
occurring in 1829 and his death in 1878. The son of 
a Congregationalist minister in Maine, he afterward 
became a Baptist, and was baptized by Dr. Baldwin 
of Boston. Educated at Waterville and Newton, he 
chose the West as the scene of his life and labor, 
coming to Michigan upon graduation at the seminary. 
He embarked almost immediately in educational enter- 
prises, the ultimate fruit of which was the college at 
Kalamazoo. Associated w r ith his own, in this sphere 
of service, are the names of Judge Caleb Eldred, Mr. 
Browning of Detroit, Judge Manning, and others, 
whose record is in the educational history of the State. 

Many other names noted in the early Baptist his- 
tory of Michigan would deserve special mention here 
did limitations of space permit. Connected with be- 
ginnings at Adrian is the name of Rev. T. Bodley, 
under whose labors the chuuch there Avas organized in 
1832. "A man of mark " was Rev T . J. S. Twiss, who 
was pastor of the Ann Arbor Church when it assumed 

E 



66 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX WESTERN STATES 

its present location and name, this also being in 1832. 
While u a preacher of strength and vivacity," of high 
character in all respects, " his hatred of oppression 
and everything that degrades man, took forms of ex- 
pression which one does not forget." One such quoted 
of him is, "Only let your politics be as becometh the 
gospel of Christ." Another is, " Since we have no 
horns, what is the use of shaking our heads as if we 
had horns." 

Dr. Haskell, of whose contributions to Michigan 
Baptist history we make such free use, came to the 
State in 1 847, as pastor of the First Baptist Church 
in Detroit. Of his distinguished service as a denom- 
inational leader, as also that of others, we shall have 
more to say in subsequent pages. 

Although Baptist pioneer life in Wisconsin began 
much later than in the States so far under view, the 
conditions of it were very much the same. Those 
portions which lie along or near the border of North- 
ern Illinois and' along Lake Michigan, were naturally 
first settled, and here Baptist history in the State 
begins. Of the church at Brothertown, composed of 
converted Indians, we shall speak later, and in another 
connection. The first church to be organized with a 
white membership was at Prairieville, now Waukesha, 
its first settled pastor being Rev. Absalom Miner, who 
after leaving the ministry as a settled occupation, long 
remained as an honored citizen of the place he had 
helped to found, and a valued member of the church he 
was the first to serve as preacher. Of those associated 



FIEST ON THE FIELD 67 

with him in both the early and the later Baptist his- 
tory of Waukesha and Wisconsin, we name Mr. W. 
D. Bacon, a man of marked executive ability and a 
stanch friend of all good enterprises. For many 
years he was a valued member of the Board of 
Trustees of the old University of Chicago. Churches 
in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, then named South- 
port, soon followed. Rev. Richard Griffin was first 
upon the ground in Milwaukee as a Baptist preacher. 
By him the First Baptist Church in that city was 
organized on November 19, 1836. In 1841 it be- 
came the North Greenfield Church, but in February, 
1842, was reorganized by Rev. Peter Conrad as the 
Baptist Church in Milwaukee. Mr. Conrad was 
followed in 1844 by Rev. Lewis Raymond, whose 
ministry there and at Chicago continued during many 
years. At Racine, in the year just mentioned, Rev. 
S. Carr was pastor. Rev. James Delany, of whom 
there will be more to say soon, found him there on 
his own arrival in the State in 1844. " He owned the 
mere shell of a building in which he taught a private 
school. The church worshiped in that room." 

More to the west in the same section of the State, 
ministers named Lake and Burgess, with Rev. Peter 
Conrad, before mentioned, were laboring, the churches 
of East Troy, Mukwanago, Spring Prairie, Geneva, 
and Walworth being fruits of their toil, organization 
of these churches occurring between the dates of 1837 
and 1842. Especially to be mentioned is Rev. Henry 
Topping, in connection with whose name Rev. James 



68 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Delany, himself one of the pioneers, as we shall see, 
writes : 

Two brothers, members of a church in Western New York, 
visited Wisconsin in 1836. They traversed Walworth County. 
A tract long called Delavan became a magnet to them. They 
bought a large portion of it at the government price, one 
dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. They were resolute 
Christians, strong temperance, anti-slavery, and anti-secret- 
society men. Quite a colony came with them from the church 
in New York, of which they had been prominent members. 
These then were the materials for a new church, and it came 
to view in due time. This body — the church in Delavan — has 
always sustained itself ; it has never been a beneficiary for one 
hour. The first Baptist church edifice in Wisconsin was built 
by this church. Its offerings to benevolent agencies are not 
trifles. Elder Henry Topping took charge of this excellent 
interest somewhere about 1839. John H. Dudley succeeded 
him in 1844. That year Rev. H. W. Reed came from Western 
New York and took charge of a little church at Whitewater, 
organized two years before by Elder Winchell, its first pastor. 
A church came into existence at Beloit soon after 1840, a sub- 
stantial meeting-house being built in 1847. That has always 
been a good church. 

Another of Mr. Delany's characteristic sketches we 
must copy : 

About 1836 came a family from Western Virginia to the 
new Territory. A slim-looking boy was one of the household. 
There was then no bridge on the Milwaukee River. This 
modest youth first crossed the stream in a birch canoe. The 
family settled eight miles from the lake. An old-fashioned 
forest was around them. , It frowned upon them and seemed 
to bid defiance to the rude intrusion they resolved to make on 
its solitude. There were some busy Methodists, and a few 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 69 

Baptists equally active. They held a "protracted meeting" 
in a log cabin. The boy attended. He was born of God. He 
read with care a certain book. That made him a Baptist of 
the purest water. He could not keep still in meetings. That 
gave proof that he must preach. Well, he did so. He made 
a farm, a good one, and lived on it. He formed a Baptist 
church. He became its first pastor, the only one they ever 
had for over forty years. He rose to be a Christian sage, a 
Nestor in husbandry, an oracle in blameless politics. . . This 
grand Christian and preacher of righteousness was E. D. 
Underwood, of Wauwatosa. 

We must still avail ourselves of the same graphic 
pen, with a view to exhibit pioneer Baptist history in 
Wisconsin on another side : 

In the mineral region, the southwestern section of the State, 
a good deal of Baptist activity was witnessed and felt as early 
as 1836. In Grant County is a landing on the great river. 
On a Sabbath day a steamer lay at anchor there. The owner 
and commander, a man of St. Louis, would not run his boat 
on that sacred day. He and some of his crew were Baptists. 
They went ashore, called on some families, shook hands with 
some loafers, rallied enough to make a prayer meeting. The 
captain could talk to them in touching style, and he did no 
doubt talk in that way. Men looked sober, women wept, and 
the meeting closed. I have been credibly informed that this 
was the first Baptist prayer meeting ever held in Wisconsin. 
The date was 1828. The leader was Samuel Smith, afterward 
the godly Deacon Smith of La Crosse. The landing was called 
Cassville, and is still so named. In that region N. E. Chapin, 
a man of devout heart, labored faithfully quite a length of 
time. 

Of the writer of these sketches, and of his early 
experiences in Wisconsin, we must now speak. A 



70 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

native of Ireland, born in 1804, a Roman Catholic in 
his youth, early enlisted as a soldier in the British 
army, it was while in the East Indian service, as 
such, that the change came which was to make his life 
and his career so wonderfully unlike all he had ever 
dreamed. In 1830, detailed with the artillery corps 
with which he was connected at Madras, on a special 
service at Moulmein, Burma, he there came under 
the preaching and the influence of Rev. Eugenio 
Kincaid, the earnest and devoted missionary. He 
had always been tender to religious influences, and 
in his earlier life appears to have been under such in 
the form they do sometimes have even among the 
Catholics. Mr. Kincaid's preaching laid hold upon 
his convictions, and after some intense experience he 
became a hopeful and joyful believer. A brother of 
his being already a priest in the Catholic communion, 
it was not surprising that his own thoughts should 
turn in the direction of the Christian ministry. Con- 
versations with Dr. Judson as to openings for such 
labor in America, finally decided him. Procuring his 
discharge from the army he came to this country, and 
after a course in ministerial study at Hamilton, was 
ordained at Broadalbin, N. Y., in 1838. After pas- 
torates of marked usefulness at Ticonderoga, Gran- 
ville, and Kingsbury, in the same State, he came to 
Wisconsin in 1844. We must here be permitted to 
quote his own language in response to a request by 
the writer of these pages. It is a picture of pioneer 
ministerial life and labor worth preserving : 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 71 

I came up the lakes in 1844. In Milwaukee were about 
four thousand souls, young and not young. With a family I 
landed at Racine about midnight, under a drenching rain. I 
sought and found a man to whom I had a letter of introduc- 
tion. I had heard of Janesville, and reached it, thinking it 
was to be my stopping place. Ten or twelve miles off I found 
a few Baptists. Failing utterly to find even a woodshed in 
which to shelter a family of six members, through a winter 
that proved bitter, anywhere in that new village of Janesville, 
I was forced to accept a chance that came to me in the other 
place. The chance was to buy a small piece of land on which 
stood a wooden shell that could not well be called a building. 
This arrangement was a positive necessity, but it exhausted a 
purse that was not deep, and never full. 

We must retrench, and so resolved to live on three articles, 
bread, potatoes, meat, if these could be procured. Well, 
Jehovah-Jireh was thought of, and his loving-kindness in- 
voked. I found some potatoes to be dug. The owner gave 
me the seventh bushel for digging them. My share was 
about forty bushels. There were labor and capital, but no 
want of harmony, no jars. Wheat was to be threshed. Re- 
quested to help, I did so, and took my wages in wheat, But 
it had to be hauled by an ox-team and ground in a mill 
twenty-eight miles away. It gave us, however, bread enough 
and to- spare. We had some good chairs. One of our neigh- 
bors wanted such things, and we let him have them for pork. 
Wooden benches became substitutes for the other seats. We 
had no candles, but we were not lightless ; lard, afforded by 
our pork, took the place of lamp oil. We had no eggs, butter, 
cheese, sugar, milk, fish, or fowl. Nothing came to us from 
China, or Bio, or any other foreign land or market. To resist 
the northern blasts I banked up our queer domicile almost to 
the eaves. That made it appear inferior to a dug-out. Yet 
I know that many good Christians, many noble women espe- 
cially, with constitutions painfully frail, suffered darker and 
sorer privations. 



72 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

One half believes that there might be appropriate 
quotation in this connection of the familiar line : 

Tantae molis erat Roman am condere gentem. 

The writer proceeds : 

Notwithstanding all those difficulties, evangelical work had 
to be done, and attempts were made to do it. The first Sunday 
in October, 1844, I organized the Janesville Baptist Church. 
I had to take all the parts of the service. The number of mem- 
bers was thirteen, eleven women and two men. I tried to 
save the interest along that winter. There, at Janesville, was 
the county seat of Hock County. Religious meetings were held 
in the court room. Four denominations used it in turn ; the 
Baptist was one of them. More than once I traveled on foot 
thirty or thirty-five miles to engage in a sermon. For years 
the church was in the condition of a weakly infant. At length 
appeared a young man, not the product of any college, but full 
of sacred zeal that came from a tender heart. He rallied, en- 
couraged souls by personal talks and public addresses. Fresh 
life flowed through the whole interest. This young worker, 
0. J. Dearborn, was ordained and became to the church a 
successful pastor. He was followed in succession, by two men 
who afterward appeared as brilliant lights in Chicago, Gralusha 
Anderson and E. J. Gloodspeed. 

Including the long, devoted, signally able and fruit- 
ful ministry of Dr. M. G. Hodge, which came later, 
it may be truly said that few churches in the Western 
land have been so highly favored in the pastorates en- 
joyed, appreciated, and sustained. 

Pioneer history must always, of necessity, be im- 
perfect. Only a few even among representative names 
can be chosen for such a purpose. Happily the con- 



FIRST ON THE FIELD 73 

nection of special topics in our general subject is such 
that, although the details in this and the immediately 
preceding chapter must here pause, they will neces- 
sarily be more or less resumed in some of those which 
follow. 



CHAPTER IY 

CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 

HP HE interest early manifested by people of the 
J- older Eastern States in the religious condition of 
those portions of the West which, as the century 
opened, were entering upon a career of such rapid de- 
velopment, was a circumstance highly auspicious. 
This interest, besides, in certain individual cases as- 
sumed a form quite as indicative of a divine call as 
was that which prompted the origination of missions to 
the heathen. Two conspicuous examples of it stand 
connected with the organization of the society to 
which Western Baptists owe so much. The two men 
of whom we thus especially speak were John M. Peck 
and Jonathan Going. 

A certain connection between those great movements 
in the Christian enterprise of modern times, foreign 
and home missions, is seen in the fact that it was very 
much under the influence of Luther Rice, the com- 
panion of Judson in his first missionary voyage, but 
at the time we mention called home with a view to in- 
terest American Baptists in behalf of missions to the 
heathen, that Mr. Peck was led to undertake the work 
which he was to prosecute with unflagging zeal to the 
end of his long life. About a quarter of a century had 
74 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 75 

elapsed since the organization, at what is now Cincin- 
nati, of " the first Christian church north and west of 
the Ohio River," when the two men we have named, 
Dr. Rice and Mr. Peck, meeting at an Association in 
the Stale of New York, found themselves like-minded 
in the matter of missions at home and abroad. This 
was in 1815. In 1816 Mr. Peck writes thus to Dr. 
Staughton, corresponding secretary of the Baptist Tri- 
ennial Convention : " Ever since I have thought upon 
the subject of missions I have had my eye upon the 
people west of the Mississippi, particularly the Indian 
nations, and have often wondered why no attempts 
were made to send the gospel to them. I have 
often thought that if it was my lot to labor among the 
heathen, the Louisiana Purchase, of all parts of the 
world, would be my choice." 1 Receiving an appoint- 
ment from the Triennial Convention, Mr. Peck gives 
utterance to the enthusiasm with which he enters upon 
his work in the words : " It is my desire to live, to 
labor, and to die as a kind of pioneer in advancing 
the gospel." And this desire was granted him in 
"labors abundant" during many years, and until the 
Western frontier had been moved far beyond the point 
at which he found it. 

The attention of Dr. Going; was drawn to the needs 
of the West by letters of Mr. Peck sent to him, as an 
active member of the Massachusetts Domestic Mission- 
ary Society, from the Western field. From that soci- 

1 Quoted by Dr. H. L. Morehouse in "Baptist Home Missions 
in North America" (Jubilee Volume), 1882. 



76 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

ety Mr. Peck had received aid in his work after the 
Board of the Triennial Convention, under the pressure 
of claims for the work abroad, had withdrawn its own 
support. Mr. Peck's correspondence with officers of 
the' society, as also with members of it like Dr. Going, 
had done much to awaken interest in the rapidly 
opening field beyond the lakes and the river. Mr. 
Peck and his associates, among them Rev. James E. 
Welch, had already been upon the Western field some 
fifteen years, when it was finally decided that Dr. 
Going, then a pastor in Worcester, Mass., and Dr. 
Bolles of Boston, should visit that section of the 
Union, with a view to learn more of its needs and its 
opportunities. Dr. Morehouse, in the work before 
cited, quotes from the correspondence of Dr. Going 
while upon this journey of exploration. He had 
just passed down with his associates in the journey 
from Cleveland and Newark to Lancaster, Ohio. 
Writing under date of May 27, 1831, he thus de- 
scribes some part of what he had seen : " The popu- 
lation seems to be a sprout just cut from Babel. Our 
passengers from Cleveland to Newark in the Pittsburg 
canal boat, consisted of three Connecticut peddlers, and 
four families who were emigrants for Cincinnati ; one 
of them English, a second Scotch, a third Irish, and 
finally a German one." In another connection he is 
quoted thus : " I have formed a short acquaintance 
with some half a hundred Ohio Baptist ministers. 
Though they are generally illiterate, they appear to 
be pious, and many of them devoted servants of our 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 77 

dear Lord. They exhibit a motley appearance, dressed 
in all kinds of garbs and colors. ;? 

This visit of Dr. Going to the Western field, and 
the reports brought back by himself and Dr. Bolles, 
resulted, as is well known, in the organization of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society, in the Mul- 
berry Street Baptist meeting-house, New York City, 
April 28, 1832. 

It would be of interest to a record such as we are 
here making, if it could be known how much at the 
date of this organization had been accomplished in 
Baptist occupancy of the field of our present survey. 
Although between thirty and forty years had elapsed 
since the work be^an in the first church organization 
at what is now Cincinnati, the conditions under which 
churches were planted and other organizations effected 
had been wholly unfavorable to any record upon which 
reliance could now be absolutely placed. While a few 
of those engaged in this frontier service, receiving aid 
either from the Domestic Missionary Society of Massa- 
chusetts, or from the New York Baptist State Conven- 
tion, as before mentioned, made reports to these organ- 
izations, such reports were necessarily in the main con- 
fined to incidents and results of their own ministry, 
while far the greater part of what was going forward 
must have been quite beyond their means of informa- 
tion. 

Indeed, the work done on the field during this 
nascent period of Baptist growth was almost wholly 
by volunteers in the service, to whom scarcely any 



78 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

thing was of less moment, or by them was less ex- 
pected, than special compensation from any quarter, or 
appointment to labor from any source. Their means 
of support they found very much as other pioneers 
did, in creating for themselves homes and farms in the 
wilderness, or in the game they captured, with patient 
acceptance of whatever of vicissitude, or even privation, 
mic^ht fall to their lot. Seek in or amid the vast wilder- 
ness which for years was their rield, or far and wide 
upon the lonely prairie, for the Good Shepherd's scat- 
tered flocks, or obeying such calls for service as reached 
them from far and near, intent upon their work, they 
gave little thought, perhaps none at all, to the fact 
that a time might come when history would dearly 
prize every faded leaf of record which should afford 
glimpses of their story. 

A few such glimpses, happily, are afforded us — one 
in a paper which describes early church planting in 
Michigan. Mention having been made of men first 
on the field of what was then still a Territory, the 
writer proceeds : 

These brethren wrought at a time of great privation, and often 
went from settlement to settlement on foot, by Indian trails, 
and over poor roads, shared the scanty fare of the pioneers, 
and received only very limited support. One of them says, 
that having the care of two churches, he preached during one 
year in twenty-two schoolhouses, fourteen dwellings, nine 
barns, three meeting-houses, and one mill, traveled on foot 
and on horseback one thousand five hundred miles, and re- 
ceived toward his support seventy dollars. Another who lived 
in Ionia in 1833, says : " Our nearest post-office was in Grand 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 79 

Rapids, thirty-five miles distant, and the mail was brought to 
that office from Kalamazoo once in three months. ' ' l 

Considering all these circumstances, it must be sup- 
posed that Dr. Going had in view more or less an es- 
timate merely, when in his letter of resignation as 
pastor of the Baptist church in Worcester, Mass., on 
his return from his Western tour, speaking of the 
region he had so recently visited, we find him saying : 
" It is known that the larger proportion of the people 
are destitute of the means of salvation, while probably 
a thousand Baptist churches are without preaching 
every Sabbath " (italics our own) ; that is, have only 
occasional preaching. Although his language has ref- 
erence, no doubt, to the entire Western field, including 
Missouri, still his estimate seems large, especially 
when it is considered that of our five States, only 
three can be included, no church having yet, at the 
lime we are considering, been organized in Wisconsin, 
and less than a score in Michigan, while in Illinois it- 
self there was as yet no Baptist church north of Peoria. 

Another estimate, 2 based, no doubt, upon statistics, 
places the number of churches then upon the entire 
Western field at not far from nine hundred. Yet 
another careful and skillful statistician 3 finds the num- 

1 Kev. A. E. Mather, d. d., in a paper upon "The Men who 
Wrought," read at the semi-centennial of the Michigan State 
Convention, 1886. 

2 Dr. H. C. "Woods, in his address upon "Home Mission Pion- 
eers," at the Denver Anniversaries in 1893. 

3 T. M Shanafelt, d. d., in a paper read at the Michigan semi- 
centennial, 1886. 



80 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

ber of churches in four of these five States, not including 
Wisconsin or any part of the trans-Mississippi field, 
to be in 1836, five years later than our present date, 
one thousand and twenty -five; ministers, five hun- 
dred and thirty-seven ; and membership, thirty-six 
thousand four hundred and sixty. 1 Still other figures 
we find in a circular letter of the South District As- 
sociation (Friends of Humanity), Illinois, written by 
Andy Kinney, of Missouri. The date of the letter 
is 1835, but the statistics given are for a date three 
years earlier, 1832. In the States of Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois, we find the number of churches placed 
at six hundred and fifty-one and the membership 
at twenty-six thousand three hundred and nineteen. 
If we add to the total churches just given, six 
hundred and fifty-one, those reported for Missouri, 
one hundred and forty-six, and seventeen for Michi- 
gan, we have eight hundred and fourteen churches on 
the field covered by Dr. Going's estimate. Even tak- 
ing into account the fact that many a " church in the 
wilderness" must have failed to report itself for men- 
tion in the record, his " probably a thousand Baptist 
churches " destitute of stated preaching could hardly 
at that time have been found within the territory 
named. Dr. Woods' estimate may, we should think, 



1 The details are as follows : Michigan, 3 Associations, 54 
churches, 28 ministers, 2,000 members; Ohio, 26 Associations, 363 
churches, 199 ministers, 14,290 members; Indiana, 24 Associa- 
tions, 358 churches, 160 ministers, 13,058 members; Illinois, 21 
Associations, 250 churches, 150 ministers, 7,112 members. 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 81 

be taken as not far from correct, namely, nine hun- 
dred. 

There is evidence that the multiplication of churches 
and growth in membership during these initial years, 
was after all very rapid ; much more rapid than per- 
haps might at first be thought likely. This was in 
harmony with what is known of the remarkably 
rapid development in population. When, in 1826, 
the Ohio Baptist State Convention was organized, we 
find the originators of that movement saying that 
Ohio, which had then been a State only during less 
than a quarter of a century, had an estimated popu- 
lation of seven hundred thousand, while the number 
of Baptists in the State was placed at seven thousand. x 
The advance of population in Indiana and Illinois 
must have been somewhat less, as the former of these 
acquired Statehood only in 1816. and the latter in 
1818; yet at the time of Dr. Going's visit Indiana 
had been a State during fifteen years, and Illinois 
thirteen. 

It is to be considered besides, how many things 
would favor a rapid multiplication of churches. 
Wherever in any settlement, however much in the 
heart of the wilderness or far remote upon the prairie, 
a few like-minded Christians would find themselves 

1 We give in this case also the other details: Ohio, 21 Asso- 
ciations, 280 churches, 142 ordained ministers, 21 licentiates, 
10,493 memhers; Indiana, 21 Associations, 219 churches, 152 or- 
dained ministers, 49 licentiates, 11,334 members; Illinois, 15 As- 
sociations, 152 churches, 107 ordained ministers, 16 licentiates, 
4,492 members. 

F 



82 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

brought together, often perhaps with little anticipa- 
tion of such an incident in their pioneer life, they 
would be quite sure to seek some opportunity for the 
enjoyment of Christian privilege. Hence the social 
meeting and soon the church. It would not be so 
much a question as to means for maintaining a stated 
ministry, as provision for such opportunity of wor- 
ship and mutual helpfulness as should sustain their 
Christian life under conditions so unfavorable, and 
preserve their families from becoming neglectful of 
religion altogether. We have noticed one instance 
already, that of the little church at New Design, 
Illinois, where the lack of a preacher was supplied 
by the reading of a sermon, and in that connection 
also, an example of the manner in which the preacher, 
in his itinerancy, with little or no opportunity to send 
forward announcement of his coming, might appear 
suddenly and unexpectedly among them. 

In our study of the process by which the region in 
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, now under view, and at 
the early date to which we limit ourselves for the 
present, was sown with churches to the extent inti- 
mated, much account must be made of the missionary 
itinerancy, then so indispensable. The methods of 
that itinerancy are thus summarized by a skillful pen : 

Following up the new settlements, looking up the scattered 
members of Eastern flocks, confirming the faith of those liv- 
ing without religious privileges, reclaiming the wanderer, 
pointing the unconverted to Christ, preaching publicly and 
from house to house, under trees, in log cabins, or wherever 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 83 

a place can be found, establishing prayer meetings, organizing 
churches and Sunday-schools, distributing Bibles and tracts, 
raising money for meeting-houses, baptizing in the streams of 
the wilderness — these are some of the things entering into 
the service of pioneer missionaries as they itinerate through 
the new sections of the West. * 

An example may be seen in this following extract 
from a report by Eev. John M. Peck, writing to the 
Massachusetts Domestic Missionary Society in 1822 : 

I have been absent from home fifty-three days ; have trav- 
eled through eighteen counties in Illinois and nine in Indiana, 
rode nine hundred and twenty-six miles, preached regular ser- 
mons thirty-one times, besides delivering several speeches, 
addresses, and lectures. I have been enabled to revive three 
Bible Societies which would never have been reorganized but 
for my visit ; to establish seven new societies, to visit and 
give instruction in the management of two societies which 
had been formed without my aid, and to provide for the for- 
mation of four others. I have aided in forming three Sab- 
bath-school societies, and in opening several schools where no 
societies exist, and improved important opportunities to aid 
the great cause in various ways. 2 

That " division of labor " which is now carried 
to such perfection in frontier work was evidently then 
not thought of. The itinerant Baptist preacher was 
home missionary, revivalist, Bible agent, Sunday- 
school missionary, all in one, with miscellaneous ser- 
vice in " speeches, addresses, and lectures." Many 
of the duties of pastor would also fall to his share : 

1 Dr. H. L. Morehouse in "Baptist Home Missions," p. 525. 

2 Quoted by Dr. Morehouse in footnote on p. 304. 



84 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

house-to-house visitation, leadership in the discipline 
as well as in the formation of churches, with frequent 
baptisms in " the streams of the wilderness." 

Of one of these itineiants, Rev. John Lee, whose 
name even, at this late date, can be known to but few, 
the following has been furnished us : 

John Lee was a very unique man ; nobody like him. Born 
and reared in England, uneducated in the school sense, with 
much of the Yorkshire accent and a large share of inherited 
devotion, he came to America when quite a young man and 
entered the ministry. His natural abilities were fine. His in- 
spirations all centered in the gospel. The Bible was his 
whole library, and it is astonishing how thoroughly conver- 
sant he was in it. He seemed to have no inclination to the 
pastorate. He was not an evangelist, not a revivalist, in the 
modern sense of the word. He was an itinerant, always float- 
ing from place to place. A good, safe, sound, earnest preacher, 
thoroughly Baptistic, and always, everywhere, cordially wel- 
comed. His want of refinement was overbalanced by his 
known and acknowledged innate goodness. He was a living 
exemplification of the doctrine he preached. He would visit 
all parts of Southern Missouri and Southwestern Illinois, with 
a little bundle tied up in a handkerchief swung on his shoulders, 
a walking-stick in hand. John Bunyan, the tinker, was no 
more at home in the Bible, more bluntly to the point in phrase, 
than was this John Lee. Uncouth, awkward, ungrammatical 
as he was, the stranger soon realized that he was no ordinary 
man in the pulpit. He never married, but lived and died an 
unmarried man. How he managed to have bread to live on, 
but few knew. He never would allow a church to pay him 
for his labors, nor would he accept missionary money. The 
facts were that a few benevolent friends in St. Louis main- 
tained him in the work to which he gave up his life. * 
1 W. F. Boyakin. 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 85 

This instance may perhaps represent a class. It is 
not, however, to be supposed that it represents pioneer 
itinerancy in these States in general. There were 
cultivated men engaged in this self-denvinsj labor, 
with gifts which would have won distinction in other 
spheres of ministerial service. Such distinction, in- 
deed, was ultimately gained by many of them in 
their later life, when "the little one " in whose nur- 
ture they shared had " become a thousand," and "the 
small one a strong nation." 

One of these, named once already in these pages, is 
still living (1894), William M. Pratt, d. d. We 
may instance his early career, as described by Presi- 
dent Stott, for an example of the manner in which 
itinerancy in missionary service associated itself with 
other work indicative of culture and versatility. On 
arriving at Indianapolis, Indiana., he served there 
as pastor, and at the same time founded and carried on 
a school for vounsj ladies. " Dr. Pratt," savs our cor- 
respondent, " was a man of so large mind, and heart 
that his influence rapidly extended. He preached the 
gospel with such power that men were constrained to 
bow down to God. . . He was so self- poised that noth- 
ing ever disturbed his presence of mind." His instru- 
mentality in the founding of the churches at South 
Bend, Mishawaka, Logansport, and Lafayette, has al- 
ready been mentioned. 

Another example of an association by an educated 
man of various labors in the founding of churches 
was that of Rev. W. F. Boyakin, by whom the 



86 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

church at Salem, Illinois, was gathered, and at the 
same time a school opened which grew, in time, into 
an academy for young women. Later, in 1843, Mr. 
Boyakin became pastor of the Baptist church in 
Belleville, an important center in that part of the 
State. Here he was brought into association with re- 
markable men, influential like himself in the early 
Baptist history of the State. Prominent among 
them was Rev. James Pulliam, who came to Illinois 
not long after the Lemens. Upon what was origin- 
ally his farm, the city of Belleville, it is said, now 
stands. Belleville was the county-seat of the first 
county organized within the limits of the then Terri- 
tory, and of its church, one of the earliest to be founded 
within the Territory, Mr. Pulliam was the first pastor. 
Mr. Pulliam, while sharing in the kind of service 
then expected of a minister, was a man of wealth, as 
wealth was then estimated, and gave liberally of his 
means in meeting the various demands of missionary 
service in the regions around. 

Connected with the kind of labor of which we 
have spoken, incidents often highly picturesque oc- 
curred which we find from time to time mentioned in 
such current record as has been preserved. One of 
these we may select as an illustration. It is based 
upon the report of a missionary in Illinois : 

The meeting was held in Pike County, at Pleasant Vale. 
We had no meeting-house, but log huts were erected around 
the preaching ground. The preaching stand was raised on 
two logs under a wide-spread oak ; a beautiful spring, rising 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 87 

in the vicinity, formed a creek which skirted one side of 
the ground we occupied, and furnished the most agreeable 
convenience for baptizing. The shade of the trees which 
skirted the adjoining woods, a clear sky, and the presence of 
a large, serious, inquiring, delighted congregation, together 
with the generous hospitality which was used on the occasion, 
all contributed to render this a meeting of most interesting 
character. But the best of all was, God was there in power 
and much mercy. It was indeed a season of peculiar refresh- 
ing to Christians, and many were convinced and converted to 
God. 1 

Different in character is the following, from the 
same official source. A missionary writes : 

Having an appointment in the court-house at , a 

Roman Catholic was hired to keep the people out of the court- 
house. He accordingly took two guns, which he loaded, and 
swore that he would shoot the first preacher that darkened the 
door. Apprised of these movements, we met in the suburbs 
of the town, under the shade of a beautiful elm tree, where I 
blew the silver trumpet of the gospel to a crowd of attentive 
hearers. 

Associated with the planting of churches now cen- 
ters of populous and refined communities, are other 
incidents which help to reproduce the surroundings 
amid which such beginnings were made. We select 
for this purpose the beautiful town of Granville, Ohio, 
notable in the educational history of the country as 
the seat of Denison University. This portion of the 
State was first settled by families who had originally 
come from Wales, and who, after a temporary resi- 

1 Annual Report of American Baptist Home Mission Society 
for 1839. 



88 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

dence in Pennsylvania, finally came to Ohio and fixed 
their homes at what is still the center of a Welsh com- 
munity, bearing the name of Welsh Hills, some three 
miles from Granville. The patriarch of this commu- 
nity was Theophilus Rees, described as "a gentleman 
and a scholar, a man of intelligence, integrity, and of 
great usefulness to his countrymen and the church." 
This gentleman, in 1802, made his home " in the wil- 
derness about one mile and a half north of the pres- 
ent village of Granville." Three years later, in No- 
vember, 1805, the Granville Company took possession 
of the site where the village of Granville, with its 
prosperous schools, now stands. 

The incident we are to relate describes a most wel- 
come surprise with which Mr. Rees was greeted on a 
Sabbath morning in 1805. During three vears no 
opportunity had occurred of participation in exercises 
of religious worship. His cows had strayed away, 
and one Sunday, hearing a lowing of cattle which 
turned out to be those of the Granville colony, — of 
whose arrival he had not heard, — he set out toward 
them, thinking they were his own without any doubt. 
As he ascended the hills overlooking the town plat, he 
heard the sinking of the new settlers in the act of 
public worship. He stopped till by accurate listening 
he caught the direction of the sound, and went on 
over the brow of the hill, where he saw on the level 
before him, a congregation engaged in public worship 
in the forest. On reaching home he informed his 
wife of what he had seen, adding, " These must be 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 89 

good people, I am not afraid to go among them " • and 
though imperfectly acquainted with the English lan- 
guage, he enjoyed with much relish the opportunity 
thus unexpectedly provided. 1 

In 1808, a Welsh Baptist church was organized at 
Welsh Hills, which continued to be known as the 
First Regular Baptist Church of Granville, the settle- 
ment where it was planted being within the limits of 
Granville Township. In 1819 the Baptist church in 
the village of Granville was founded, and the former 
church then took the name of the Welsh Hills Bap- 
tist Church, which it still retains. 

It must be with a thrill of interest that the present 
generation of Baptists in that interesting locality re- 
calls the gathering of worshipers in the heart of what 
was then a wilderness, although now a region re- 
deemed and beautified with what is best in civilization, 
and the thankful joy with which the songs of Zion 
were heard echoing among the tree-tops and along the 
lonely hills. 

The church life and the type of Christian character 
developed under conditions such as we here describe, 
are deserving of particular mention. That these 
should take their tone, more or less, from the manner 
of life generally inseparable from circumstances such 
as accompany the settlement of new regions, more es- 
pecially when means of inter-communication between 
these and the older ones left behind are very imper- 

1 Howe's "History of Ohio," quoted by Isaac Smucker in 
"History of the Welsh Settlement in Licking County, Ohio." 



90 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

feet, was inevitable. Western character and Western 
life, in general, assumed characteristics of their own, 
and of this, church life and Christian character largely 
partook. In many things the points of contrast 
were upon the whole favorable to the new communi- 
ties. Energy of character would naturally result 
from encounter with such an environment as the 
Western man found himself confronting. When the 
pioneer or the pioneer minister must even go to his 
place of worship with his gun in his hand, prepared 
for encounter with Indians or with savage beasts, he 
would naturally acquire a habit of dealing with even 
hard conditions of life in a spirit of manly constancy, 
and with courage not easily daunted. The manner of 
life on the frontier, besides, always tends to develop a 
freedom of idea and habit as to social customs such as 
in older communities might attract unfavorable atten- 
tion, yet be matters of course in the newer ones. 

Of these peculiarities the religious life naturally 
partook. An effect was seen in two directions. Some, 
the spirit of Western life, its freedom from all bond- 
age of custom and routine, predisposed toward the re- 
ception of new doctrines and practices in religion, in 
such a manner as to prepare a way for whosoever 
might come declaring " some new thing." Upon the 
other hand, Western sturdiness might be expected to 
brace itself against innovation of every kind, in such 
a degree as to carry orthodoxy itself to an extreme. 
Upon the whole, the type of Christian character and 
of church life so developed was a noble one. No- 



CHUKCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 91 

where upon the continent were Baptists as a rule more 
true to fundamental principles and New Testament 
standards in fairh and practice than in these Western 
States. Nowhere were the responsibilities of a test- 
ing situation more loyally met, or the hard work of 
laying foundations done more in a spirit of loyalty 
and fidelity. 

Many things, no doubt, were divisive in their neces- 
sary influence and effect. Dr. Daniel Shepardson 
writes as follows : 

The ministers of the period were not, as a rule, liberally 
educated, and the churches were not generally taught to send 
the gospel to the heathen. They had come together from 
different quarters with different views. The Bible was su- 
preme authority, but its teaching was differently understood. 
Some of the people were Arminians, but a large number were 
Calvinists. Some believed in the use of means to a certain 
extent, but were careful not to take the work out of the hands 
of God. Bible, tract, and missionary societies, with Sunday- 
schools, were not found in the word of God. It might be 
right for a person to teach his own children on Sunday, to call 
in the children of his neighbors, to ask capable instructors to 
help, etc. , but still, a Sunday-school was a human notion not 
authorized in the Scriptures. So it might be right to teach 
the gospel to impenitent neighbors, or even to the Indians, 
whether near at hand or hundreds of miles distant. But the 
Bible says nothing about missionary societies. The anti-mis- 
sion spirit was not fully developed for some thirty years ; yet 
the processes of its growth are here very clearly seen. Anti- 
slavery views also abounded, while even at a very early day 
there were churches which refused fellowship with churches in 
the South because of slavery. 

One example we may give of the manner in which, 



92 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX WESTERN STATES 

in the lack of such generally accepted articles of faith 
as are now in use, churches on this Western field in 
their organization constructed articles for themselves. 
The church in Dixon, Illinois, originating under the 
ministry of Eev. Thomas Powell, dates its record 
from the year 1838. Sixteen articles of faith were 
adopted, simple in form, but fundamental and com- 
prehensive. 

(1) We believe in the existence of God, the doctrine of the 
Trinity, and the inspiration of the Old and New Testament 
Scriptures ; (2) the original happiness and present depravity 
of man ; (3) the atonement of the Son of God ; (4) the ef- 
fectual operation of the Holy Spirit, the conviction and regen- 
eration of sinners ; (5) the necessity of repentance for sin, 
faith in the Redeemer, and obedience to the gospel in heart 
and life ; (6) justification by faith, imputed righteousness ; (7) 
sanctification by the agency of the Holy Spirit ; (8) the perse- 
verance of the saints to eternal glory ; (9) the resurrection of the 
dead and general judgment ; (10) the perfect happiness of the 
righteous and the endless misery of the finally impenitent ; (1 1) 
we also recognize the independence of every gospel church, 
the ordinance of baptism, and the Lord's Supper; (12) bap- 
tism to be administered by immersion only, and on credible 
profession of faith ; (13) baptism and conformity to the gos- 
pel preparatory to communion at the Lord's table; (14) the 
office of pastor and deacon in each church ; (15) the sacred 
observance of the Lord's Day as a day of Christian worship ; 
(16) the duty of praying and laboring to sustain the gospel 
ministry and diffuse the influence of truth throughout the 
world. 1 

1 From a historical paper read at the "roll-call" of the Dixon 
Baptist Church, at its fiftieth anniversary, October 24, 1893, by 
Mr. J. T. Little. 



CHURCH BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL 93 

In another paper, read upon the occasion mentioned 
in the foregoing footnote, 1 sketches are given of 
members prominent in the early history of the same 
church, some of which illustrate the Christian hospi- 
talities that relieved the hardship and loneliness of 
pioneer life. The city took its name from that of one 
of its founders, of whose wife it is said : 

Mother Dixon, as she was familiarly and reverently called, 
was one of those noble women through whose lives and labors 
the world is made better. The whole aim of her life seemed 
to be to serve her Master with her whole heart and strength. 
. . . Her kindness to the poor, her care of the sick, her cor- 
dial welcome to the stranger, and her hearty God-speed to 
the traveler, remain as sweet memories to many yet living. 

The time had not yet come, at least in the West, for 
that active interest in movements of Christian enter- 
prise and reform upon a large scale, seen of late years 
among Christian women of our own and other coun- 
tries. The Western wife and mother was none the 
less a gracious force to be accounted of among* those 
who have created Western society and Western life in 
their best forms. Her kindly greeting to the lonely 
and weary traveler, her fortitude under circumstances 
so unlike those under which her own life may have 
begun, her tender assiduities in the home circle, how- 
ever rude the surroundings — these in such instances 
as many yet living can recall, are worthy of distinct 
mention as among the influences which have made 
Western society what it now is. 

1 By Prof. Eli C. Smith. 



CHAPTEE V 

AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 

BRIEF mention has already been made of the 
planting of churches in Cincinnati, Detroit, Mil- 
waukee, and Chicago. Additional particulars of 
early history at these points, and at one or two others 
of like prominence, will here be in place. 

The earlv history of Chicago was a troubled one. 
The Pottawatomie Indians refused to relinquish their 
claim to the territory so long owned by them, includ- 
ing the site of w T hat was then but a crude village ; a 
claim asserted, as is well known, in the massacre at 
Fort Dearborn in 1812. A formal cession, however, 
of the claim was made by them at a large gathering 
of the tribe, seven thousand in number, held in Chi- 
cago in 1833. This relieved Northern Illinois and 
adjacent regions of further apprehension on these 
grounds, and Chicago very soon entered upon the 
career of growth and prosperity of which the present 
is the outcome. 

It was in the same year as this notable Indian as- 
sembly with its important consequences, that the cor- 
respondence took place which brought to Chicago its 
first Baptist missionary and pastor. Among those 
who had recently made their homes there, was Dr. 
94 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 95 

John T.. Temple, son-in-law of Dr. William Staugh- 
ton, an earnest Christian man and a Baptist. In a 
letter from him to Rev. C. G. Sommers, of New 
York, occurs the following passage : 

We have no servant of the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim 
the glad tidings of salvation. I write to beg you will see Dr. 
Going, and ask that a young man of first-rate talent, whose 
heart is in the cause of Christ, may be sent out immediately, 
before the ground shall be occupied by some other organiza- 
tion. I will myself become responsible for two hundred dol- 
lars per annum for such a missionary. 

Rev. Jeremiah Porter, a Congregationalist minister, 
had for a greater or less time served as chaplain at 
Fort Dearborn, and as preacher to a congregation in 
the village. The Methodists also had a preaching 
staticn in the place, served by " old Father Walker." 
Dr. Temple's language in the letter, however, clearly 
implies that there was, as yet, no " other organiza- 
tion." 

At the time when Dr. Temple's letter came into the 
hands of Dr. Going, then Secretary of the American 
Baptist Home Mission Society, a young man, Allen 
B. Freeman, at the Hamilton Literary and Theo- 
logical Institute, now Colgate University, was on the 
point of finishing his studies. He was the son of 
Rev. Rufus B. Freeman, of Central New York, and 
was at this time twenty-seven years of age, having 
been born in 1806. Dr. Temple's letter was sent to 
him by Dr. Going, with the offer of an appointment 
as missionary of the society to labor at Chicago. The 



96 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

offer was accepted, and Mr. Freeman' arrived upon 
his field in August, 1833. Dr. Going, in the letter of 
introduction to Dr. Temple, spoke of him as "a 
talented, pious, and efficient man." i 

A house of worship was almost immediately begun. 
The few brethren with their limited means could nof 
plan largely in this regard. The late Cyrus Bentley, 
Esq., of Chicago, in his history of the First Baptist 
Church speaks of the house as " an humble edifice, 
designed both as a place of worship and as a school- 
house, and cost when completed the sum of six hun- 
dred dollars, of which one hundred and fifty dollars 
was in arrears, and remained as a debt upon the 
property." On October 19 of the same year (1833) a 
church was organized with fifteen members; the only 
Baptist church, with a single exception, then in Illi- 
nois north of Peoria ; the exception being the Aux 
Plaines Baptist Church, which had been organized a 
few months earlier. 

The devoted service of the young missionary pastor 
was to continue during only the brief period of one 
year and a half. In the meantime Mr. Freeman ex- 
tended his labors as much as possible into the adjacent 
settlements, a service attended with much labor and 

1 Dr. William Dean, the veteran missionary, a classmate of Mr. 
Freeman, has written of him: "At our graduation, in 1833, we 
were ordained together at Hamilton, at the close of the commence- 
ment exercises. Tlev. Jonathan Going preached the sermon. 
John M. Peck also took part in the ordination. After this I 
attended his wedding and saw him and his bride start to plant 
churches in Chicago." 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 97 

exposure, the country being so new, the roads so 
bad, and the means of travel so imperfect. Several 
churches were organized, and the ordinances adminis- 
tered. One of these was at a place named Long 
Grove, now Bristol, some fifty miles from Chicago. 
There, early in December, 1834, Mr. Freeman bap- 
tized a young man named David Matlock, afterward 
a useful minister. As he was returning homeward, 
the horse upon which he rode gave out, and much of 
the journey had to be made on foot in stormy weather 
and consequent great exposure. A fever was the re- 
sult, of which he died, December 15, 1834. Among 
his last words were these : " Tell my father that I die 
at my post and in my Master's service." 

The early death of Mr. Freeman was greatly la- 
mented. He had won not only a place in the 
warmest affections of those in whose service he la- 
bored, but a lasting place also in the early history of 
the denomination in Chicago and Illinois. His name 
is to be recorded with those of many other men 
thus early called to higher spheres of service, whose 
memory remains in the churches as a treasure and an 
inspiration. It is deeply to be regretted that in 
changes occurring upon the present site of Chicago, 
all knowledge of the place of his burial has been lost, 
so that it must be said of him as of the great Israelit- 
ish leader and prophet, " No man knoweth the place 
of his sepulchre unto this day." 1 In the present 

1 "The "Western Christian," one of the earliest Baptist papers 
in the West, in a notice made of these events while the memory 

G 



98 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

house of worship of the church founded by hiru there 
is seen a befitting memorial. The north vestibule has 
a tablet with the following inscription : 

In Memory 

of 

Allen B. Freeman. 

Born 1806 ; 

Founded this church 

October 19, 1833; 

Died December 15, 1834. 

11 1 die at my post and in my Master's service." 

Details of Baptist history in Chicago must in the 
main be reserved for a later page. Nine years passed 
before a second church came into existence ; the new 
organization being due in part, no doubt, when it 
came, to the spread of population to the west side of 
the river, but in part also to the appearance on the 
scene of that issue, so divisive in its effect and which 
influenced so much the history of years soon follow- 
ing, of which we have such frequent occasion to make 
mention. Members of the church pronounced in their 
anti-slavery views withdrew, in 1842, along with the 
pastor, Rev. C. B. Smith, and organized a second 
church on the west side of the river, giving it the 

of them was still fresh, says of Mr. Freeman: "His fellow- 
students will long remember the last prayer meeting they en- 
joyed together in that institute" at Hamilton. il His death was 
that of a Christian; it was glorious, it was triumphant. It was 
almost like heaven to stand at his bedside." Mrs. Freeman, who 
was in all things likeminded with her husband, afterward became 
the wife of Rev. Alvin Bailey. 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 99 

name of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. In this 
church Mr. C. N. Holden was, if not from the very 
first, certainly during nearly all its history until 1864, 
when important changes occurred, a leader, as also in 
enterprises of reform characterizing the interval of 
nearly a quarter of a century between the dates jnst 
named. In educational enterprises of the denomina- 
tion centering at Chicago, he also shared actively and 
infiuentially. 

Of what was occurring at two other important 
centers in Illinois we must now speak. It was in 
1836 that Springfield became the capital of the State. 
A Baptist church was then already in existence, hav- 
ing been organized with eight members. " There 
were " at that date, " only four Baptist churches in 
the State of Illinois which were what might be termed 
missionary Baptist churches." 1 The first pastor of 
the church was Rev. Aaron Vandeveer, who remained 
in service five years. An Association was already in 
existence, called the Sangamon Association, composed 
of " five or six small anti-mission Baptist churches in 
the vicinity of Springfield." With this Association 
the Springfield Church became connected in the first 
years of its history. 

The church, however, soon found itself out of sym- 
pathy with others in the Association upon the then 
all-engrossing question of missions and other forms 
of special organization in the interests of religion and 

1 "History of the Springfield Baptist Association,'' by Rev. 
Edwin S. Walker, of Springfield, 111. 



100 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

reform. In 1835 or 1836 two brothers, Charles B. 
Francis and Josiah Francis, came to Springfield from 
Pittsfield, Mass., where they had been active mem- 
bers of the Baptist church. " Monthly concerts of 
prayer for missions had been for some time observed 
by our churches in the Atlantic States. To intro- 
duce their observance here at the West, among anti- 
mission churches, was no easy service. Mr. C. B. 
Francis, however, with an earnest zeal in the service 
of his Master, commenced by inviting members of 
the church to his house to read and talk over the 
news from Dr. Judson and other missionaries in the 
foreign field." l The result was that the church soon 
found itself out of sympathy with others in the San- 
gamon Association. The organization of the Spring- 
field Baptist Association soon followed, in the year 
1837, composed of such churches in that section of 
the State as were in sympathy with missions and 
other like objects. 

In 1836 Rev. Aaron Vandeveer was succeeded by 
Rev. Jonathan Merriam, a native of Passumpsic 
Valley, Vermont. "A stalwart man in both body 
and mind," and who had studied for the ministry, 
like so many others whom we name in this history, 
under Dr. Staughton, at Columbian College, Washing- 
ton, D. C. We shall here, in the present case, antic- 
ipate subsequent events so far as to mention, with the 
brevity which limitations of space compels, changes 
in the pastorate during years following. These were 
1 Kev. E. S. Walker. 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 101 

principally as follows: O. C. Comstock, D. D., one 
year in 1839; H. W. Dodge three years, 1840-43; 
Gilbert S. Bailey, 1846-50; Thomas C. Truesdale, 
1850-52 ; William Sym, 1853-55 ; N. W. Miner, 
1855-69, fourteen years, a ministry characterized in 
an unusual degree by spirituality and an earnest evan- 
gelism ; N. Pierce, 1870-73 ; M. H. Worrall, 1874- 
78; J. L. M. Young, 1879; under his pastorate the 
North Church, an unsuccessful second organization, 
became united with the older one, thus forming the 
present Central Baptist Church. Under the minis- 
try of Rev. F. D. Rickerson, who followed, the pres- 
ent spacious and handsome house of worship was 
built, The pastorate, still later, of Rev. O. O. 
Fletcher, d. d., gathered a strong congregation, which 
fully held its own under that of Rev. Euclid B. 
Rogers, his successor. 

Owing partly, perhaps, to its location in the capital 
of the State, this church has been favored with influ- 
ential laymen to whom the church has itself been 
much indebted. We name, as examples, besides 
those mentioned above, John Hay, Gen. Mason Bray- 
man, Hon. John M. Palmer, United States Senator, and 
Hon. Jesse B. Thomas, of the Illinois Supreme 
Court. Deacon W. W. Watson was, during many 
years, with Josiah Francis, a pillar in the church. 

Peoria, in Illinois, claims especial mention here, on 
account of its position as perhaps the second city in 
the State in point of population, as well as because it 
was the first point of like importance held by Bap- 



102 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

tists in Central Illinois ■ yet not less because of the 
place held in the Baptist ministry of the State dur- 
ing many years by one of the later pastors, Rev. H. 
G. Weston. The Baptist church of Peoria appears to 
date from the year 1836, its organization with ten 
members occurring in that year, Rev. Alexander 
Ridler being the pastor. After this came Henry 
Headly, who had been ordained soon after the organ- 
ization of the church. These two pastorates lasted 
each only one year. In 1 839 came E. W. Gardner, re- 
maining until 1842. In the following year he was 
succeeded by Rev. I. D. Newell. In 1846, Mr. Newell 
being still the pastor, the first house of worship was 
built, after a severe struggle and with many sacrifices 
on the part of the members. Following the dedica- 
tion a fruitful revival was enjoyed, Rev. Morgan Ed- 
wards, "the Sailor Preacher," assisting the pastor. 
Mr. Newell resigning to become agent of Shurtleff 
College, he was succeeded, in a happy hour for the 
church and for the denomination in the State, by Rev. 
Henry G. Weston, whose pastorate, to . last during 
thirteen prosperous years, began Nov. 1, 1846. 

Mr. Weston, born at Lynn, Mass., was the son of 
a Baptist minister, Rev. John E. Weston, who at the 
time of his son's birth was connected with "The 
Christian Watchman," the Baptist paper at Boston. 
Baptized at the age of fourteen, a graduate at Brown 
in 1840, and at Newton in 1843, ordained in that 
year at Frankfort, Ky., Mr. Weston came at once to 
Illinois, serving as a missionary at his own charges, 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 103 

in Tazewell, Woodford, and McLean counties. In 
1859, after thirteen years of most fruitful service at 
Peoria, he accepted the call of the Oliver Street 
Church in New York City and the presidency, which 
he still holds, of the Crozer Theological Seminary in 
1868, entering upon office at the founding of that in- 
stitution as its first president. In all departments of 
denominational service in the State his personal in- 
fluence and judicious counsels were felt to be inval- 
uable, while as preacher and pastor he gained and 
held the foremost place, not only in the city of his 
residence, but in the entire State of Illinois. 

Other pastors of the First Church at Peoria have 
been, in late years, Pev. C. E. Hewitt, i>. d., and Rev. 
D. D. Odell. Under Mr. OdelPs pastorate the new 
house of worship, representing in its size and finish 
the progress which the church had made in its more than 
half-century of history, was built. His removal to 
Omaha, Neb., in 1893, left this pastorate vacant. 

In a brief sketch of Baptist churches in Cincin- 
nati, we find this graphic passage : 

There are few landscapes in Ohio more charming than that 
which greets the eye from the summit of Mount Tusculum, 
rising so boldly from the river near the most easterly boun- 
dary of the city. The view embraces the broad sweep of the 
Ohio, the fruitful fields at the south of the Little Miami, the 
graceful outline of the Kentucky hills, and all the busy life 
of what was once Columbia, but is now an important section 
of a great city. 1 

1 Mr. George E. Stevens in "Centennial Supplement of the 
Journal and Messenger,'' June 7, 1888. 



104 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

We have before described the landing at the point 
so mentioned, of the first Ohio pioneers, and the 
founding of '• the first Baptist church in Ohio or else- 
where in the wide Northwest." " One spot espe- 
cially," says Mr. Stevens, '' will fix the gaze of every 
Baptist. It is an old burying-ground a short dis- 
tance above Columbia Station, on the Little Miami 
railroad. This place will be ever notable in Baptist 
annals as the site of the first meeting-house occupied 
by the Columbia Baptist Church. It was built in 
1792. The lapse of a century invests the ancient 
graves, and the foundation stones that here and there 
mark the site, with intense historic interest." The 
church so founded, it appears, now bears the name of 
Duck Creek Church. 

The original site of Cincinnati appears to have 
been some five miles distant from the locality here 
described, and was occupied by a similar colony of 
pioneers about one month later than the one at Col- 
umbia. A considerable time elapsed, however, be- 
fore Baptist churches began to be organized within 
what was to become a city that should embrace Col- 
umbia itself, and so much else of the adjacent terri- 
tory. Baptist meetings were held, with ministers 
from Baptist churches adjacent, but for some reason 
it was not until 1813 that a church existed in what 
was then Cincinnati. In December of that year the 
church which was in later years known as "the 
Original and Regular First Baptist Church," was or- 
ganized. In July, 1815, it took possession of the 




AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 105 



house of worship it had built, the sermon on the occa- 
sion being preached by Rev. Alexander Denniston. 

Many influences divisive in character began to be 
felt soon after. About this time Alexander Camp- 
bell visited Cincinnati, and gained several persons to 
the adoption of his views. There was also difference 
of opinion as to fundamental tenets of Calvinism, some 
inclining to extreme predestinarian views, others hold- 
ing the more moderate ground. The First Church or- 
ganized, as just mentioned, was rent in twain, the one 
part being recognized by the Miami Association as 
the true First Church, though the name was claimed by 
the other. Subsequently in 1821, from the former of 
these two sections of the First Church, the Enon 
Baptist Church was organized, and erected a house of 
worship on Walnut street, occupying this until 1841. 

In 1828 a remarkable revival was enjoyed in the 
Enon Church, under the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah 
Yardeman, of Kentucky. The ingathering of new 
members was very great, so that a colony numbering 
one hundred and eighteen went out to form a new 
church, which, taking its name from the street on 
which its house of worship was built, was called the 
Sycamore Street Baptist Church. Causes of division 
among Baptists of the city still continued. Alex- 
ander Campbell was preaching often at the Sycamore 
Street, and occasionally at the Enon Church. The 
party which had been left behind in what still called 
itself the First Baptist Church, held its ground, al- 
though much reduced in number. Mr. Campbell had 



10G HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

recently held a famous debate with the infidel, Robert 
Dale Owen, and had much strengthened himself in 
public estimation as the result. Under his influence 
the Sycamore Street Church was steadily swinging 
from its Baptist moorings, and preparing for what 
came a little later, the adoption by a majority of its 
members of Mr. Campbell's views, and change of name 
to the First Christian Baptist Church of Cincinnati. 

It is always spoken of as a most providential cir- 
cumstance that at this time there came to the city a 
man suited in many ways to such a juncture, Rev. 
Samuel W. Lynd. He was simply on a visit to the 
city, but soon attracted attention. " His broad and 
cultivated understanding, the moderation of his doc- 
trinal views, as contrasted with the hyper-Calvinism 
to which many Baptist preachers in this region at 
that time inclined, together with his clear and logical 
presentation of gospel truth, at once made strong 
friends for him with all who listened to his voice. 
Around him, it was apparent, the elements to which 
reference has already been made could gather." 1 

The result was the organization of the church now 
known as the Ninth Street Baptist Church of Cincin- 
nati. Its original membership numbered nineteen, 
fourteen bringing letters of dismission from the Enon 
Baptist Church, and four from the Sycamore Street. 
The church was recognized by council, Nov. 9, 1830. 

1 Historical discourse by Rev. S. ~W. Duncan, d. d., on occa- 
sion of the semi-centennial of the Ninth Street Baptist Church, 
Cincinnati. 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 107 

Some four months later, the members left of the orig- 
inal First Church came, almost in a body, to unite with 
the new church, that which they had formerly con- 
stituted now passing out of existence. The name, 
First Baptist Church, appears to have been then 
taken by the Enon Baptist Church, and by that name 
it is now known. A Bethel Baptist Church had in 
the meantime been organized ; so that in the passing 
of the Sycamore Street Baptist Church into the hands 
of the Campbellites, and the merging of the original 
First Church with what is now the Ninth Street, — 
but at first named from its original location the Sixth 
Street, — there were at this period three churches in 
Cincinnati, including what had been known as the 
Enon, but now the First Church. The Bethel Bap- 
tist Church organized in 1829, under the ministry of 
Rev. John Boyd, disbanded soon after the organiza- 
tion of the new church formed under Dr. Lynd's 
leadership, most of its members finding a home 
there. 

Thus, at the beginning of Dr. Lvnd's pastorate, 
there had come to be only two Baptist churches in 
Cincinnati, the First and the Sixth, subsequently the 
Ninth Street Church. But although the number of 
churches had suffered diminution, the effective 
strength of the denomination was made much greater. 
Causes of division were out of the way, and where 
there had been collision and debate, there was now 
union and a growing spirit of earnest consecration to 
the common service. 



108 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

It is the purpose at this point, to record only be- 
ginnings. We shall add here, accordingly, only that 
Dr. Lynd's pastorate, which began on the first Sun- 
day of the year 1831, continued until September, 
1845, when he resigned to become pastor of the Sec- 
ond Baptist Church in St Louis. In 1836, the house 
on Sixth Street having become too small, the site at pres- 
ent occupied on Ninth street was purchased and a new 
house of worship erected, costing thirty-six thousand 
dollars. The present more spacious one was erected 
in 1867-68, at a cost of ninety thousand dollars. 

The year 1826 supplies a date for the beginning of 
Baptist history in Detroit. 

In the spring of 1826, God had stirred up a few Baptists, 
who had settled in this then rude city, to earnest longings and 
prayers for the establishment of church privileges and minis- 
trations among them, while at the same time he was turning 
toward them and their field the heart of Brother Henry Davis, 
then about leaving his preparatory studies and entering the 
ministry. Brother Davis was accordingly led to visit Detroit 
in August of that year, and was soon invited by the brethren 
here to make this his field of labor. A room was secured and 
fitted up in the academy, standing where is now the west front 
of the City Hall, and early in the summer of 1827 this pioneer 
of our Baptist cause in our city arrived on the ground and set 
himself down to his arduous work. He was welcomed, as he 
had been called, by but two brethren and three sisters. 

The first meeting of these few sheep in the moral wilder- 
ness with their undershepherd, who had come to fold and 
feed them, was affectingly interesting. All related their 
Christian experience, and covenanted to strive together for 
the establishment of their faith in this city. Stated meetings 
were thereafter kept up in the academy for preaching, prayer, 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 109 

and business. On the nineteenth of August, the first candi- 
date for baptism, Mrs. Nancy Cabell, was buried with Christ 
in that ordinance. The scene was new to the community, 
and probably the first of the kind ever mirrored in the calm 
waters of our majestic river. A cloudless sky looked down 
on a vast and solemnly attentive concourse of people, who 
followed this witnessing believer to the water's side, and be- 
held her emblematic burial and resurrection, and seemed, 
like the crowds who followed her of Samaria to the well, a 
harvest white for the sickle. Two others were baptized the 
same month. 1 

The council for recognition of the church, meeting 
on October 20, 1827, was composed entirely of lay 
delegates, Rev. Elkanah Comstock of Pontiac, the 
only Baptist minister then in the State, being provi- 
dentially detained. The churches so represented were 
only three, Pontiac, Troy, and Farmington. For 
ministers to conduct the proceedings it was necessary 
to send to other States, and three such were secured : 
Rev. Elisha Tucker of Fredonia, N". Y., Rev= Jairus 
Handy of Buffalo, and Rev. Asahel Morse of Ohio. 
The sermon was by Mr. Tucker, the charge and hand 
of fellowship by Messrs. Morse and Handy. Ten 
persons constituted the membership of the church, in- 
cluding the pastor. Of the four male members, one, 
Mr. Francis P. Browning, has frequent mention in 
subsequent annals of the denomination, alike in the 
city and in the State. 

1 "Historical and Biographical Sketches of the First Baptist 
Church in Detroit. Presented at the close of its first half- 
century," September, 1877, by S. Haskell, d. d. 



110 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The years which followed were years of painful 
vicissitude. The pastor's health failing, he was com- 
pelled to leave after a year's service. Causes of dis- 
cipline occurred even in this small body, and though 
new members came in, others had to be excluded, so 
that during three years which elapsed before another 
pastor could be called, the membership never ex- 
ceeded twelve, while sometimes falling as low as 
eight. One important gain, however, had been made. 
Partly through the advice and co-operation of Gov- 
ernor Lewis Cass, valuable property had been secured 
in the form of lots, upon which a house of worship 
was subsequently erected. It was a further sore trial 
to the church that during four years, from 1827 to 
1831, its application for admission to the Association 
was refused. " The cause of this unmotherly treat- 
ment," writes Dr. Haskell, " from the churches whose 
delegates had approved the organization of this younger 
sister church, w T as alleged to be, that a faction in the 
Association complained that the body. was too small 
to be a church, and that it chose to receive as mem- 
bers persons who had been baptized by Pedobaptist 
ministers. Though thus subjected to prejudice from 
without and discouragement from within, the feeble 
body stood with true Baptist adhesion to the princi- 
ples of religious liberty, meekly asserting her inde- 
pendence as a church and waiting for the door of the 
Association to open to her with that assertion upon 
her lips ; as in 1831 was the case, when she was 
freely received." 



AT THE CHIEF CENTEES 111 

The term of the next pastorate, that of Rev. Stephen 
Goodman, from England, lasted only one year, al- 
though in that time the membership had increased to 
forty-five. The year following, 1832, was cholera 
year, and the church suffered under the natural de- 
pression. It had, however, a resolute leader in the 
person of Mr. Browning, who, although the prevail- 
ing disease had found a victim in his own oldest son, 
cheered his brethren in the struggle, encouraging 
them especially in steps toward securing a place of 
worship of their own. In September, 1833, the cor- 
ner-stone was laid, and in October the walls were up. 
In 1834 Rev. Robert Turnbull became pastor, con- 
tinuing in service two years and a half. Soon after 
his settlement in November of the year named, the 
house of worship was dedicated, and the church had a 
home. Succeeding pastors were Rev. O. C. Comstock, 
father of the missionary, 1838-1839; Rev. Howell 
Smith, 1839-41; Rev. Andrew Tenbrook during the 
three years next following, being ordained on occa- 
sion of his settlement, and permitted to see, in 1843, 
twenty baptisms as fruits of his labor. He resigned 
his pastorate to become Professor of Intellectual and 
Moral Science in the State University at Ann Arbor. 
Rev. James Inglis came next, also ordained with 
this church, and almost immediately favored with a 
revival in which the church was increased by seventy 
new members, fifty-three by baptism. The period of 
ordeal had now passed, and times of prosperity were 
henceforth to be enjoyed. 




112 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

As an example of the style of character found so 
often in the Baptist laymen of the West, not alone in 
Michigan, but in other States as well, we copy some 
portion of what Dr. Haskell says of Mr. Browning : 

I thank God that the history of this church gives me the 
privilege of holding up before business men, and especially 
before young men, a character whose prominent features are 
so rare and so worthy of contemplation as those which stood 
out in the person of Francis P. Browning ; a man of such men- 
tal vigor and industry that, while overwhelmed with the cares 
of a most extended and embarrassing mercantile business, he 
could command time and thought sufficient to keep his mind 
filled with the fresh laden stores of his good library, making 
him a treasury of instruction to the church, and a companion 
to learned members of the Eastern ministry, to whom his 
duties made him known ; a man of such devotion to the 
cause of religion, that his life and property were labeled 
with the mark of consecration to its advancement ; and of 
such adherence to what he believed to be the church polity of 
the New Testament, that his energies and his fortune were 
sacred to the work of fanning and fueling the little fire which 
he and a few others kindled on this obscure Baptist altar ; 
while at the same time his spirit and heart were liberal 
enough to render him an active and esteemed co-worker with 
Christians of every name in their efforts to plant the then 
untamed soil with seeds of religion, general morality, and 
intelligence. 

Of early times in Milwaukee we have briefly made 
mention in the Introduction with which our history 
opens. Between the date at which the young town re- 
ceived a village organization, 1825, and that at which, 
in 1836, Baptist history there begins, eleven years 
elapsed. Rev. Richard Griffin then appeared upon the 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 113 

scene, under appointment by the Home Mission So- 
ciety. A native of Clinton, Conn., and having already 
had service as a pastor in Granville, Mass., he came 
in the year named to what was then a wilderness and 
not to become a State until twelve years later, in 
1818. Upon this wild scene he was to spend nearly 
all the remainder of his life, planting and fostering 
the infant churches. By him the first Baptist church at 
Milwaukee, first also in the Territory, as such was or- 
ganized Nov. 19, 1836. "Some of the earliest set- 
tlers and largest landholders in that vicinity were 
Baptists, and the first white child born in Milwaukee 
was the daughter of Baptist parents. They called 
her name ' Milwaukee/ She is yet living (1891) in 
California." l 

The early history of the church formed as men- 
tioned above is obscure. In 1841 its name appears to 
have been changed to North Greenfield, and under Rev. 
Peter Conrad what is now the First Baptist Church 
of Milwaukee was reorganized in 1842. Mr. Conrad 
was a native of Wyoming County, New York. 
Early converted, he became a student at Hamilton at 
sixteen years of age, "graduating with honor in both 
departments, literary and theological." In the year 
named above he came to Milwaukee, commissioned by 
the society in New York as a home missionary. Fol- 
lowing his pastorate at Milwaukee, we find him spoken 
of as en^a^ed in like service at Geneva, Prairie du 
Sac, Wilton, Baraboo, Kilbourne, Berlin, and East 

1 Rev. David Spencer, d. t>. 
H 



114 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Troy. His great work was accomplished as itinerant 
missionary under the direction of the State Conven- 
tion or American Baptist Home Mission Society. 
" There is hardly a town of any note in the State where 
he did not sow the gospel seed. He was for many 
years the missionary apostle of Wisconsin, since he 
preached the gospel through all that region. He 
served the American Bible Union as its financial sec- 
retary in the State, for a short time. It was while on 
his missionary tours, preaching the gospel to the des- 
titute, gathering the scattered sheep into churches, 
that he was most happy. " ! 

The pastorate of Mr. Conrad at Milwaukee must 
have been of short duration, as in 1844 we find Rev. 
Lewis Raymond pastor there. Mr. Raymond like 
Mr. Conrad was a typical Western man. The species 
of hardy enterprise required of the pioneer suited his 
energetic and vigorous manhood. He had been born 
at Walton, Delaware County, N. Y., in 1807, and 
had been baptized at the age of twenty-three by Rev. 
S. P. Griswold, "one of the veteran ministers of 
New York." In his first preaching, having been 
licensed by the church at Sydney, he united minis- 
terial service with his business as a builder. He soon 
settled as pastor at Laurens, and then for eight years 
held the pastorate at Cooperstown. Being found en- 
dowed in an unusual degree for revival preaching, 
he was called into that service, and for three years, 
from 1841 onward, was thus engaged in New York 
1 "Baptist Cyclopaedia," p. 270. 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 115 

and Northern Pennsylvania. In 1844 he came to 
Milwaukee, and continued in service there until 
1848, the church gaining under his ministry sufficient 
strength for the erection of its first house of worship. 
Mr. Raymond's subsequent labors were as pastor of 
the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Chicago, and a like 
service at Sandusky, Ohio, the church there being or- 
ganized under his ministry. After one year, surren- 
dering this pastorate to Rev. J. D. Fulton, two years 
of service following for the Ohio State Convention, 
he came to Aurora, 111., where he organized a new 
church, performing a like service at Peoria in 1859. 
When the war broke out, he entered the army as a 
chaplain, continuing as such till the struggle was over. 
From that time till his death at a ripe old age, he was 
engaged in revival work, East and West, retaining 
his energy and enthusiasm to the last. 

Baptist growth in Milwaukee may be said to date 
from the erection of the first house of worship under 
the ministry of Mr. Raymond. It was, however, 
owing to various causes, slow and marked by many 
vicissitudes. The pastorate of Rev. T. S. Griffiths, 
which soon followed that of Mr. Raymond, was 
nevertheless a fruitful one, while in later years the 
accession to the membership of men engaged in large 
business enterprise, with ampler means than were pos- 
sessed by those who in earlier years had helped to 
fester the infant cause, made it possible to attempt 
larger things, and to branch out in forming new 
churches. 



116 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The First Baptist Church in Indianapolis dates its 
history from 1822, in which year it was organized, 
with seventeen members. Of these early times, 
President Stott writes : 

The church was constituted in August, 1822 ; Benjamin 
Barnes was the first pastor, preaching once a month, the place 
of meeting a log schoolhouse on what is now Maryland Street, 
between Tennessee and Mississippi. In June, 1825, Bev. 
Cornelius Duvall, of Kentucky, was called to the pastorate, 
being followed soon after by Bev. Abraham Smock. Bev. 
Byron Lawrence, afterward professor in Franklin College, 
Bev. -Ezra Fisher, and others, preached for the church. 
Among these others were Bev. T. C. Townsend and Bev. J. 
L. Bichmond. In 1843 Bev. Gr. C. Chandler, first president 
of Franklin College, became pastor, and served till 1847. He 
was succeeded by Bev. T. B. Cressey, a very active, enter- 
prising minister, and especially active as secretary of the 
Indiana General Association, now the State Convention. In 
1852 the church called Bev. Sidney Dyer, ph. d., afterward 
so long connected with the Publication Society. Following 
him was Bev. J. B. Simmons, d. d., so well known in the 
denomination ; 

especially, we may add, by his service as secretary of 
the Home Mission Society, with the establishment of 
freedmen's schools in the South as his particular care. 
We note, in this place, only these early records of 
Baptist history at Indianapolis. 

On February, 16, 1883, occurred the semi-centennial 
of the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio, Rev. 
Philip S. Moxom being then pastor. A history of 
the church was on that occasion read by Dea. B. 
Rouse. The first Baptist preacher to visit the place — 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 117 

his name not being preserved, so far as we can find — 
came in 1800, at which time that which later bore the 
name of " Forest City/' must have been a forest in- 
deed. The next mention looking toward a beginning 
of Baptist history, was the arrival in the place of 
Moses White, in 1816, and in 1830, Benjamin Rouse. 
In 1832 a Baptist minister was on the ground, He v. 
Richard Taggrart, from Rhode Island. Under his 
preaching some were converted, among them a young 
man, recently from England, Thomas Goodman. 
Four of these converts received the ordinance of bap- 
tism on January 14, 1833, " stepping from the ice 
into the water." These, with the persons first named, 
became the nucleus of the Baptist church formed in 
February 16, 1833. 

Of pastors who came later, Rev. S. "W. Adams, d. d., 
is remembered with peculiar honor and affection. 
Born in Vernon, Oneida Co., N. Y., in 1815, he be- 
came a Christian at seventeen, and soon after fixed 
upon the ministry as his chosen sphere. Receiving 
his education, literary and theological, at Hamilton, 
and graduating from the seminary about 1843, he 
was in the same year ordained. After serving as 
supply of churches at Dtirhamville and Johnstown, 
N. Y., he accepted, in 1846, the pastorate of the First 
Baptist Church in Cleveland, continuing in the service 
until 1864, a period of eighteen years. In the year 
last named, his active and useful career closed, his 
death being mainly caused by exposure while in the 
service of the Christian Commission at the South in 



118 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX WESTERN STATES 

time of the late war. His wife was a daughter of 
Dr. Nathaniel Kendrick of Hamilton, and upon the 
death of the latter his memoir was written by 
Dr. Adams. Few men in the Western ministry have 
been so highly appreciated for the ability of their 
ministry, or so admired in their character. His death 
at the early age of forty-nine was an occasion of keen 
sorrow not onlv to the church he had served so long; 
and well, but to the denomination wherever his name 
had become known. 

Dr. Adams was succeeded in 1865 by Dr. Augustus 
H. Strong, who in 1872 resigned to accept the presi- 
dency of the Rochester Theological Seminary. Rev. 
A. J. F. Behrends followed, but after three years of 
highly acceptable service, having changed his views 
upon subjects affecting the Christian ordinances, he 
resigned, entering the Congregational ministry. In 
1879, Rev. Philip S. Moxom began his ministry with 
this church, his term of service being; followed bv that 
of Rev. E. A. Woods, d. d. At the date of our 
present record, the highly efficient pastor, honored 
throughout the State, is Rev. A. G. Upham. 

Connected with the First Baptist Church, Cleveland, 
during* manv vears was Hon. J. M. Hovt, distinguished 
among Baptist laymen of the country by qualities 
which brought him into positions of conspicuous 
service. During thirteen years he was President of 
the Cleveland Bible Society. Three times in succes- 
sion, 1867 — 1870, he was chosen president of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society, presiding 



AT THE CHIEF CENTERS 119 

at the notable anniversary of this society, held at 
Chicago in 1867. He was a writer, as well, articles 
by him in the " Christian Review " commanding at- 
tention by their intelligent grasp of great subjects, 
and tiieir vigorous and manly style. Churches in 
Cleveland are also much indebted to Mr. John D. 
Rockefeller, one of whose homes is in that city, his 
membership being with the Euclid Avenue Baptist 
Church. 



CHAPTER YI 

CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 

rpHERE were many things to occasion more or less 
J- disturbance of harmony in new communities of 
the West, at the date at which our history begins. 
Made up as these communities were of immigrants 
from sections in older parts of the country having 
their own diverse peculiarities, these peculiarities 
were, of course, quite sure to be imported by the in- 
coming populations, perhaps in exaggerated form, 
while at the same time finding opportunity of propa- 
gation denied them in communities more mature. 
Then, it should be remembered, that ideas and meth- 
ods in matters of grave concern, now well settled 
through lapse of time and the test of experiment, 
were then new, and by many held doubtful even in 
the older States. 

If we instance the subject of missions, it is to be 
considered that when Baptist history in these five 
States begins on the banks of the Ohio, the first so- 
ciety of Baptists for missionary purposes — that which 
originated with Carey and Fuller — was yet to be or- 
ganized ; and that even when that great new step for- 
ward in modern evangelism had been decided upon 
by the two or three earnest men whose example few 
120 






CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 121 

or none would now ever think of calling in question, 
they were comparatively alone in their missionary 
zeal, even in England itself. The anti-mission ideas 
of early Baptists in the West seem strange to us now. 
They would be far more strange, and far less easily 
accounted for, if it had not been true that what some 
Western leaders were then saying had been said 
before them by no less a man than John Ryland, 
when rebuking the young William Carey for propos- 
ing to interpret the divine purpose. 

What was true of missions was true of other things. 
It is natural, perhaps, to assume some peculiar perver- 
sity of mind and temper in those who could see no 
good, but mischief rather, in such an addition to cus- 
tomary church methods as the Sunday-school, or such 
methods of reform as the temperance society. Even 
in the land of its birth, the home of Robert Raikes 
himself, this — the Sunday-school — which now seems a 
method of Christian work, justified, and even de- 
manded, by the weightiest considerations of Chris- 
tian duty to the young, and to that swiftly coming 
future in whose life the rising generation is to actively 
share, was received with more than suspicion, and had 
to make its way in face of great opposition, or at best 
indifference. Of the temperance idea, like things 
may be said, whether as concerned total abstinence on 
the part of the individual, or organized effort to de- 
stroy what was felt to be an evil, yet an evil tolerated 
so long as to seem almost to have gained its own right 
of possession in every community. 



122 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

These several forms of opposition assumed in the 
new communities of the West a character more or less 
exaggerated, yet they were at the time far from being 
without example even in the most cultured circles, 
whether in the old world or the new. Still, account 
must here be made of those facts in Western Baptist 
history in the early times, especially of the three old- 
est of the five States under view, Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois, which impart to it in some degree a char- 
acter of its own in the particulars here considered. 
Certain men came into prominence, as leaders of op- 
position to missions, to Sunday-schools, and to tem- 
perance societies, who besides this, represented pecu- 
liarities of doctrinal teaching notable at the time, and 
still more or less surviving. A public teacher of this 
class, a man much talked about in his time, and heard 
of still, was Daniel Parker. His doctrine bore the name 
of the " Two-Seed Doctrine," and those holding it 
were called " Two-Seed Baptists/' or from the name 
of their leader, " Parkerites." 

Dr. John M. Peck, in one of his writings at a time 
when Mr. Parker was still alive and active in propa- 
gating his peculiar views, mentions it as "a singular 
coincidence and mysterious providence, that the year 
in which Isaac McCoy took leave of the Association 
(Silver Creek Association in Indiana, organized in 
1812) which he had nurtured from the first, the 
name of Daniel Parker appears in its Minutes as 
connected with the Lamotte Church in Crawford 
County, 111. Dr. Peck goes on to say : 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 123 

Mr. Parker is one of those singular and extraordinary beings 
whom Divine Providence permits to arise as a scourge to his 
church, and as a stumbling-block in the way of religious 
effort, liaised on the frontier of Georgia (by others he is 
spoken of as a native of Virginia) without education, un- 
couth in manner, slovenly in dress, diminutive in person, un- 
prepossessing in appearance, with shriveled features and a 
small, piercing eye, few men for a series of years have exer- 
cised a wider influence on the lower and less educated class of 
frontier people. With a zeal and enthusiasm bordering on 
insanity, firmness that amounted to obstinacy, and persever- 
ance that would have done honor to a good cause, Daniel 
Parker exerted himself to the utmost to induce churches to 
declare non-fellowship with all Baptists who united them- 
selves with any of the benevolent (or, as he called them, 
" new-fangled ") societies. 

His mind, we are told, was of a singular and 
original sort. In doctrine he was antinomian. He 
believed himself inspired, and so persuaded others. 
" Repeatedly have we heard him when his mind 
seemed to soar above its own powers, and he would 
discourse for a few moments on the divine attributes, 
or on some devotional subject, with such brilliancy of 
thought and correctness of language as would astonish 
men of education and talents. Then again, it would 
seem as if he were perfectly bewildered in a maze of 
abstruse subtleties." * 

It is not easy to explain, at least what was meant 
by Mr. Parker himself, in the phrase " Two-seed," 
which in time became so notorious. This at least 
may be said ; the teaching represented by it was that 

1 Quoted in Benedict's " History of the Baptists." 



124 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

form of antinomianism which carried the doctrine of 
predestination to its utmost extreme. The following 
explanation of the doctrine is said to have been given 
by one who had access to pamphlets and other writ- 
ilia's relating to it : 

The essence of good is God ; the essence of evil is the 
devil. Good angels are emanations from or particles of God ; 
evil angels are particles of the devil. When God created 
Adam and Eve they were endowed with an emanation from 
himself, or particles of God were included in their constitu- 
tion. They were wholly good. Satan, however, infused into 
them particles of his essence, by which they were corrupted. 
In the beginning God had appointed that Eve should bring 
forth only a certain number of offspring ; the same provision 
applied to each of her daughters. But when the particles 
of evil essence had been infused by Satan, the conception of 
Eve and her daughters was increased. They were now re- 
quired to bear the original number, who were styled the seed 
of God, and an additional number who were called the seed of 
the serpent. 1 

The former of these constitute the body of Christ, 
whose salvation is certain ; for the latter no salvation 
has been provided. 

It may be doubted if Mr. Parker's way of ex- 
pounding his doctrine, assuming the above to repre- 
sent it fairly, would now be recognized by those at 
present bearing the name of the sect founded by him. 
In the " Census Bulletin of Statistics of Churches " 
for 1893, prepared by Dr. Carroll, editor also of 
the work quoted above, we find it said that the 

1 " American Church History," edited byH. K. Carroll, ll.d., 
1893, p. 49. 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 125 

"Two-seed," or " Two-seed in the Spirit Baptists" 
hold simply to the belief that " there are two seeds, one 
of death and one of life. The former became im- 
planted in man when he fell from the state of holiness 
in which he was created originally ; it brings forth 
the fruitage of eternal death. The seed of life is 
communicated by the Holy Spirit to those who are 
called and regenerated ; it springs up into eternal 
life." The number and destiny of the two classes 
are fixed by unalterable decree. The calling of the 
ministry is " to comfort Zion, feed the flock, and con- 
tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints." They " do not believe that the help of a 
minister is needed by the Saviour to reach and save 
sinners. He carries on the work of salvation with- 
out the help of man." 

Besides his itineracy among the churches, Parker 
was a writer, and among other things published for a 
time a periodical called the " Church Advocate." 
How much a person of influence he was is shown by 
the fact that during four years, from 1822 to 1826, 
he was a member of the Illinois State Senate. His 
disastrous career in Illinois and Indiana came to a 
close in 1833, when he removed to Texas. 

It is said of Daniel Parker, that at one time in his 
earlier career he applied for appointment as a mis- 
sionary, and upon being refused, turned against mis- 
sion societies and missionary effort of every kind. 
However this may be as to Parker, of his coadjutor 
in anti-mission campaigning, Wilson Thompson, it is 



126 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

true by his own testimony that he was once very near 
to espousing the cause which he spent so much of his 
life in opposing and denouncing. President Stott 
writes : 

His (Thompson's) home was in a splendid farming dis- 
trict, six or eight miles north of Connorsville, Indiana. 
He was born in Kentucky in 1788, and became a minis- 
ter at twenty-five or before. He traveled a great deal 
in Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. About 1816 he en- 
tered land in Fayette County, Indiana, and preached 
for several churches in the State, making trips often to 
other States. One of these led him to the lower Wabash 
Valley, where he visited Maria Creek Church and there met 
Isaac McCoy. Mr. McCoy had just started an Indian school. 
He tried to interest Thompson in it and in missions in general. 
After his return home Mr. McCoy wrote him, still urging him 
to come and engage in general missionary work. 

The account which Mr. Thompson himself gives 
describes the mental struggle through which he passed 
in determining the question whether or not he should 
join Mr. McCoy. u My inind," he says, " became 
greatly impressed with the vast importance of preach- 
ing the gospel to all nations, and as the poor heathen 
savages were among us, and we had their land and 
had greatly reduced their numbers, I felt that I 
would seize the opportunity now offered for carrying 
the gospel among them." To that conclusion he 
seemed at one time to have come. But when he 
made his intention known to the churches which he 
served he " met with strong opposition from all the 
members. My house," he adds, "soon became 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 127 

crowded day and night with my best friends, often 
pleading with me with tears in their eyes not to go." 
As some question still remained on the general sub- 
ject of missions in themselves, this importunity on 
the part of those he was serving had all the stronger 
effect. Upon the whole he seems to have determined 
to enter the work of Indian missions with Mr. 
McCoy. The conclusion of all he describes thus : 

I had my horse shod and all in readiness for the next Mon- 
day morning, . . the church meeting day at Pleasant Run. 
I had bid other churches farewell ; to-day I bid this church 
farewell also ; but expected to meet them again on Sunday. 
I started home alone, on foot, and as I was walking fast and 
in a thinking mood, these words came to my mind : "Who 
hath required this at your hands?" It thrilled my whole 
frame and set me all in a shiver. All this time I stood like 
a statue. When the last-mentioned text came to my mind I 
was fully satisfied that this new system of missions was of 
human origin. I proceeded homeward with my mind at ease, 
and I have never felt that sort of mission fever since. 

From one circumstance we incline to infer that 
Wilson Thompson's attitude toward missionary or- 
ganization may have been more moderate than was 
the case with some others. We find what is evidently 
his name in records of the Ohio Baptist State Conven- 
tion, in 1830 and 1831, upon committees and in other 
connections. He may have remained under the influ- 
ence of impressions such as came near making him an 
associate of McCoy in his Indian work, at least so far 
as to justify to his own mind co-operation with some 
forms of missionary work at home. 



128 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The scene of Mr. Thompson's ministry included 
districts in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and he 
would seem to have been to some extent favorable to 
educational enterprises and to State organizations; 
although, as far as appears, not in sympathy with 
missionary societies in general. " He was," writes 
President Stott, " strongly influenced by Elder John 
Taylor, an Anti-mission Baptist of Kentucky, who so 
strongly opposed Luther Rice in his efforts to create 
a missionary spirit there." * 

There is evidence that the reactionary effect of such 
teaching as this which we describe, whether in the 
form of Parkerism or some other, was exceedingly 
disastrous, alike upon the church life and upon indi- 
vidual character. A church holding these views is 
thus spoken of in the letter of a home missionary : 
"It is a large church, but not more than one-half 
could read the word of God, and much of their exer- 
cises in religious worship was conducted without in- 
struction, and with noise and confusion." Statements 
made in a sermon before the Home Mission Society at 
the anniversary held at Troy, N. Y., in 1853, by Dr. 
D. Shepardson, then pastor of the First Baptist 
Church in Cincinnati, furnish a strong picture of the 
effect produced by the antinomian teaching of Parker 
and others like him. " Its name," says Dr. Shepard- 
son, " is legion (speaking of antinomianism as seen in 

1 Mr. Maurice Thompson, well known in American literature, 
is believed to be of the same family as Wilson Thompson ; per- 
haps his nephew. 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 129 

Western communities), and like a cancer it has rooted 
itself deeply and eaten into society in every direction. 
The very essence of sin, it is full of excuses for its 
guilty indolence in religion. In its hatred against 
God and all good, it sees in modern missions Abra- 
ham and Hagar forestalling the purposes of the Eter- 
nal ; or, at best, a mere money-getting scheme con- 
trived for worldly ends." 

Instances are given in the connection of the strange 
ignorance and intolerance found in communities where 
this teaching had a ready reception : 

One sees in the benevolent societies of the time the last 
plagues of the Apocalypse ; another believes that Luther 
Rice is living somewhere in luxury and splendor, as he 
"raised funds all through the country, then mysteriously dis- 
appeared, and has never been heard of since" ; while a third 
has reason to believe that a gentleman rode on horseback to 
Burma, and saw Dr. Judson at the head of a bank established 
with money swindled out of the ignorant by lying agents. 

Very naturally, another question became associated 
with this of the scriptural propriety of organized mis- 
sions — that, namely, of a salaried ministry. Those 
holding views such as we describe, appear to have also 
considered a paid ministry equally unscriptural. An 
illustration we may notice in the action of that which 
was the oldest Association in Illinois, the South Dis- 
trict (Friends of Humanity), at a session held in 1832. 
In the record of proceedings we find the question 
and reply : 

Query : Whereas, Some of the brethren of this Association 
I 



130 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

feel it to be their privilege and duty to contribute toward the 
support of such preachers of this body as devote the whole or 
part of their time to the ministry of the word, now we inquire 
if it would be a bar to fellowship in any one's mind if such 
brethren should go forward in this business, as a free-will offer- 
ing, with the understanding that each member of the church 
is at liberty to give or not to give, as he may deem his 
duty? 

This query is answered as follows : 

Ans. This Association unanimously says, it is the privilege 
of such members to give freely to support the gospel, with 
the understanding that each member is at liberty to judge of 
his duty. And the Association urges and recommends upon 
the brethren to be tender of each other' s feelings and privi- 
leges, and not to accuse each other of improper motives. 

Thus guardedly was it found necessary to speak 
upon a matter now so completely removed out of the 
sphere of question or debate. 

It is proper to say, as a matter of historical justice, 
that instances such as those first cited in this connec- 
tion, ought probably to be regarded as in some degree 
extreme and exceptional. It should be further said 
that while anti-mission churches and Associations 
are still found in these States, the tone of their teach- 
ing and of their public proceedings is more in accord- 
ance with the spirit of this present time, than was the 
case when the conditions were so different as they cer- 
tainly were half a century or more ago. We may 
here, in illustration, avail ourselves once more of a 
letter from our obliging correspondent, President 
Stott. He writes : 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 131 

A few years ago I went over into that part of the State 
(Indiana), which had been the chief scene of Thompson's 
labors, and was invited to preach in an anti-mission meeting- 
house in sight of Wilson Thompson's old home. I was de- 
lighted with the manifestations of neatness, culture, and 
plenty. The congregation was exceedingly attentive, and al- 
though I let it clearly be known that I was a missionary Bap- 
tist, nobody seemed to object to the doctrine advanced. I 
was told that if a missionary could preach there a few times, 
and show a genuine brotherly spirit, the church would be 
brought over bodily. l 

It is in no wise surprising that ideas such as we 
have outlined should not be favorable to growth in 
numbers or influence. Anti-missionism in Baptist 
churches, however, has by no means died out. Even 
the strange doctrine of Daniel Parker still has its 
adherents. 2 

Before passing to another phase of the general 
subject in this chapter, we may take from some notes be- 
fore us, by Professor Franklin Johnson, d. d., a few 
interesting paragraphs, with particular reference to 
Ohio, the scene of the early ministry of his father, 
Rev. Hezekiah Johnson ; though, indeed, what he 



1 About the time Dr. Stott refers to, in a periodical represent- 
ing opposition to missions, published in St. Louis, articles ap- 
peared advocating the formation of classes for Bible study; and 
more recently, in a general conference of anti-mission churches 
at Connorsville, Ind., it was resolved that the gospel must be 
preached " at home and abroad." 

2 The "Census Bulletin" for 1893, reports the membership of 
this sect in the entire country at 9,932; of anti-mission Baptists 
of ail names and sorts, the number given is 94,348 



132 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

says is true in the particulars indicated of all the 
three States here especially under consideration : 

The period between 1824 and 1839 was a formative period 
in the history of Ohio Baptists. One great practical subject 
of debate among them was that of missions. Many of the 
churches were extremely Calvinistic, to use, and perhaps to 
misuse, a general designation ; and on that ground opposed 
the employment of human means for the salvation of the 
lost, whether in this land or in any other. And not only mis- 
sions, but Sunday-schools, and sermons to the unsaved found 
but little favor from this class. The divine sovereignty, there- 
fore, was a theme of vital interest in the pulpit, and I have 
known a man to travel twenty miles to hear my father preach 
on the doctrine of election. 

In general, preaching was far more theological than it is at 
present. The people had not the thousand and one mental 
burdens and distractions which now overwhelm them, and 
they looked to the minister to furnish them with intellectual 
stimulus by discussing great doctrines in an argumentative 
manner. The denominational debate supplied an intellectual 
want to which the platform lecture, the editorial, and the re- 
view article now minister. The champions of the Baptists, 
and the Disciples, or the Methodists, would meet in friendly 
controversy, and spend a week or ten days in keen battling in 
the presence of the assembled people. The whole town would 
be aroused, as it is now only by a political campaign, and men, 
women, and children would throng the scene of contest. Nor 
was there so much feeling as many might suppose. Usually 
some lawyer or judge would preside, preserve excellent order, 
and require courtesy toward each other from the contestants. 
The hearers went home to search the Scriptures, and the Bap- 
tists made great gains. 

They speedily learned to adjust their theology to missions, 
Sunday-schools, and revivals. One of my uncles, some years 
ago, showed me a small log schoolhouse in which my father 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 133 

preached some of his early sermons. He called my attention 
to the marks of a lock which had once been on the door, and 
gave me a curious account of their origin. There had been 
no lock there until my father, one Sunday, preached an earn- 
est sermon on missions. The little church he addressed were 
so offended by his heresy, that they resolved at a business 
meeting held soon afterward, to prevent him from ever 
preaching in the place again, and voted money sufficient to 
put a lock on the door. When he came to keep his next ap- 
pointment, he and the few who came to hear him found them- 
selves debarred from the house. "It was not long," my 
uncle continued, ' l till the church changed their views en- 
tirely, and then they passed a resolution to remove the lock, 
as a testimony of their regret for what they had done. ' ' 

Allusion is made in the above extract to public de- 
bate with the " Disciples," Campbellites, as they are 
sometimes styled, though perhaps not with sufficient 
regard for their own preferences as to the name they 
shall bear. We shall not find it necessary to dwell 
at much length upon the phase in Western Baptist 
history occasioned by the introduction of the teach- 
ings of Alexander Campbell in the States of Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois, in which alone of the five 
States included in this record those teachings have 
really gained adherents tc any extent. 

It was not far from the time at which the occu- 
pancy of these States had fairly begun, or about 1804, 
that Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and 
son, who had come to this country from Ireland, in 
the course of a revival movement among the Presby- 
terians, their own denomination, in Kentucky and 
Tennessee, broke from their former connections, and 



134 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

adopting Baptist views as to the initiatory Christian 
ordinance, with some other doctrines peculiar to them- 
selves, soon became leaders of a new sect. They re- 
fused to be called by any other name but " Chris- 
tian " or " Disciple," and avowed no creed but the 
Bible. 

One peculiarity of this teaching was the promi- 
nence given to the ordinance of baptism, it being 
held that in connection with submission to this rite 
comes always " divine assurance of remission of sins 
and acceptance with God." Passages in the New 
Testament which speak of " remission of sins " in 
connection with baptism, were by them made to have a 
more literal rendering, so as to exalt, beyond what is 
usual with Baptists, the spiritual efficacy of the rite. 
The ministry of the Holy Spirit was held to be in 
and by the truth, this being urged in such a way as 
to limit the ministry, and in some degree to disparage 
the Spirit's efficacious work in Christian experience. 
Confession of Christ as " the Son of the Living God," 
was held to be the essential thing as preparatory 
to baptism, in submission to which rite remission 
and acceptance became assured to the believer. The 
hope of Mr. Campbell, and of those associated with 
him, was to make this teaching the basis of a union 
of believers, in which existing divisions should be 
healed and the original oneness of all " Disciples of 
Christ" restored. In this view, simplicity of method 
was followed, the church order being congregational, 
and official positions in the church being confined to 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 135 

pastors, called also bishops or elders, to deacons, and 
evangelists — the latter beins; more or less itinerant 
and missionary in their service. The Lord's Supper 
was observed on each Sunday. 

The first effect of the introduction of this teaching 
in the new States was necessarily divisive. Dr. John- 
son has spoken of the public debates held between 
Baptists aud Disciples ; this becoming, indeed, for a 
time, a marked feature in Baptist history on this 
field; so continuing, more or less, for years after. 
" Campbellism was, in some sense, a rebound from 
antinomianism, and yet in some way it found common 
ground with it in opposing missions and the mission- 
ary spirit. Parker and Thompson finally opposed 
all mission operations, as Sunday-schools, Bible socie- 
ties, temperance societies, etc., and Campbell, in op- 
posing human creeds and organizations, was led also 
to include whatever did not, in the New Testament, 
have a specific sanction." 

Says the same writer 1 : 

The defection began in Southern Indiana, in the main. 
Some of the leaders who went out from Baptist churches 
were such as Elder John B. New, Chauncy Butler, whose 
descendants founded Butler University, near Indianapolis ; 
Dr. R. T. Brown, and Bev. Br. Kane. Some churches were 
slightly disturbed ; others were divided, each part still retain- 
ing church organization. In some instances Campbellism 
prevailed and the Baptists were beaten. Old Father Martin, 
who lived near Washington, Ind. , told me of a case in which 
a part of a church withdrew to the farther part of the meet- 

1 President Stott. 



136 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

ing-house and excluded the rest. In the meantime party the 
second organized and promptly excluded party the first. 

In some instances it appears to have been thought 
necessary to make encouragement of the new teaching 
matter of personal discipline, at least so far as is im- 
plied in the resolution adoped by Silver Creek Church, 
the first of Baptist churches to be organized in Indi- 
ana. The resolution adopted in 1830 declares : "This 
church deems it disorder to invite any preacher to 
preach or administer in the church among us, who is 
of the pretended reformation, or who vindicates or 
circulates Alexander Campbell's pamphlets, or his 
new translation of the New Testament." 1 

Like other forms of dissent from the generally ac- 
cepted Baptist position on doctrinal and practical sub- 

. 1 Simply as a phase of past controversy — or what is mainly 
thus of the past — it may be of interest to note the translation 
given by Mr. Campbell in his version of the New Testament, of 
a passage in the Acts of the Apostles (2 : 38), which in the de- 
bates was more or less a crucial one. The verse is made to read, 
" Reform and be each of you immersed in the name of Jesus 
Christ, in order to the remission of your sins, and you shall re- 
ceive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The word which we print 
in italics, Mr. Campbell held to express more exactly the force 
of the Greek neravoeui (metanoeo), than the word "repent." He 
quotes in an appendix to his version, with approval, the render- 
ing of the Bishop's Bible, about the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, "Amend your lives, and be baptized, every one of you," 
etc. Among lexicographers, of course, there is no difference of 
opinion as to the meaning of the Greek word in question, as im- 
plying "change of mind," intimated in the word "repent" as 
commonly used. The Campbellite version, however, " reform " 
or "amend your lives," while clearly incorrect, implied a point 
of doctrine which was vital to the controversy. 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 137 

jects, such as have been dwelt upon in this chapter, 
that of the " Disciples" has undergone considerable 
modification. Two tendencies are said to be mani- 
fest among them. " While some churches are be- 
coming evangelistic other tend toward a rationalistic 
form of teaching." * 

To what extent the anti-slavery issue entered into 
Western history, during all its earlier period espe- 
cially, scarcely needs to be dwelt upon. We shall 
here only cite one instance illustrative of its effect in 
a certain direction. On an earlier page we have 
spoken of " the Lemen family " and those associated 
with them in planting the first Baptist churches on 
the Illinois field, and of their earnest anti-slavery 
zeal. By these the first Baptist Association in the 
State was organized. It bore the name of the Illinois 
Baptist Union, and was formed in 1807, including 
five churches : New Design, Richland, Mississippi 
Bottom, Wood River, and Silver Creek. At first 
this Association was in correspondence and sympathy 
with the Emancipation Baptists of Kentucky, the 
" Torrence Rule," mentioned on a former page, for- 
bidding admission to membership of those who fa- 
vored slavery, being in full force. As time went on 
and the anti-slavery issue became more pronounced, 

1 From summary of this denomination, by States, published 
in the volume of "American Church History," edited by Dr. H. 
K. Carroll (1893), we learn that the number of "Disciples at 
that date stood as follows: Illinois, 60,867; Indiana, 78,942; 
Ohio, 58,425; Michigan, 5,788; Wisconsin, 1,317; in the entire 
United States, 641,051. 



138 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

with a growing party favorable to making Illinois a 
slave State, at least as far as to permit the holding of 
slaves, this question became an occasion of division 
among Baptists, and the Illinois Baptist Union, the 
pro-slavery element predominating, broke fellowship 
with the Kentucky Emancipationists. 

In 1809 the issue took a more express form at a 
meeting of the Union, Judge Lemen speaking very 
severely of the course taken, and an opponent, Larkin 
Rutherford, replying with much bitterness. " A di- 
vision occurred," writes Rev. B. B. Hamilton, " and 
a new organization was effected at Cantine Creek on 
December 10, 1809; a church composed entirely of 
the Lemen family, and the oldest church having a 
continuous existence in the State. There were seven 
members, the mystic number : James Lemen, Sr., 
Catherine, his wife, Robert and Hetty Lemen, James 
and Polly K. Lemen, and Benjamin Ogle. These 
were recognized as a gospel church by James Lemeu, 
Jr., and John Baugh, an ordained minister. On the 
third of February the church called for the ordina- 
tion of James Lemen, Sr., Joseph Lemen, and Benja- 
min Ogle, and on that night James Lemen, Jr., and 
John Baugh ordained Benjamin Ogle, who assisted, 
next day, in the ordination of James Lemen, Sr., and 
Joseph Lemen." This was a primitive way of doing 
things, but it answered its purpose. The church at 
Cantine Creek subsequently took the name of Bethel 
Baptist Church, and as mentioned above, is the oldest 
surviving church in the State of Illinois. 



CONFLICTING ELEMENTS 139 

Churches in fellowship with this were in due time 
organized and an Association formed, with the name 
South District Association (Friends of Humanity). 
About the year 1849 the descriptive clause in paren- 
thesis appears to have been dropped, the name becom- 
ing from that time forward South District Associa- 
tion simply. 

The anti-slavery issue, as will appear in subsequent 
pages, entered into Western Baptist history later, and 
in forms yet more influential. We do not find it 
necessary to dwell further upon it at this point. 



CHAPTER VII 

CHUECH GROWTH 

A STUDY of the conditions and results of church 
growth in these five States finds the history 
assuming two main divisions, the one antedating, the 
other succeeding the great civil war of 1861-65. In 
how many ways conditions secular in character and 
national in scope were similarly affected, need not be 
dwelt upon here. Indeed, national character itself 
seemed in some degree to undergo change not unlike 
that which was seen in the men themselves who in the 
hardships and dangers of the war found a develop- 
ment and a discipline such as only these or like fierce 
ordeals occasion. Sad and terrible as the ordeal was ; 
vast as were the losses and the sufferings ; sad beyond 
expression as were the desolated firesides; many as 
were the unmarked graves on abandoned fields of 
battle, while in the home circle was sorrowful wait- 
ing, never to be rewarded with the home-coming of 
the patriot soldier, it is a relief to know that the stress 
of the mighty conflict served as a tonic in national 
character, while it opened a new future to the nation 
whose territory was not only saved from disruption, 
but was devoted to freedom in a larger sense than ever 
before. 
140 



CHURCH GROWTH 141 

The first of the two periods in our present history 
of which we have spoken, covering the seventy years 
from 1790 to I860, was a period, as what appears in 
former pages amply shows, of denominational growth, 
in many ways. This was, however, more apparent 
in the occupancy of new ground, the multiplication of 
churches on the general field, than in acquisition of 
actual strength. Growth at the centers was less evi- 
dent, while on the wider scene increase of churches did 
not always mean increase of power. Those methods 
in denominational enterprise which now yield such 
important results mainly came into use in the years 
following the war, although the need of them had 
begun earlier to be keenly felt. 

One peculiarity of the ante-war period in denomi- 
national procedure grew out of the fact that those who 
planted churches at points where the rapid growth of 
the crude hamlet into the town and the city was con- 
fidently anticipated, viewed themselves as justified in 
drawing upon the anticipated future for needs of the 
present. It came to be almost a common incident of 
early church growth, that in the building of the house 
of worship it was considered both expedient and safe to 
leave a debt upon the property to be provided for at. a 
later time when the community should have become 
more populous, and the church increased in member- 
ship and in resources. In theory this form of pro- 
cedure might very naturally seem justified. It was 
too, in harmony with what many were practising in 
their own personal affairs. No one can be surprised 



142 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

that with such immeasurable riches in the soil of these 
great States, such openings for commerce by lake and 
river and rail, such rapid influx of population, and 
such rapid birth and growth of towns and cities, it 
should have been felt that a future so promising was 
a mine of resource whose treasure must be adequate to 
meet all demands created by real or supposed needs of 
the present. 

The result was not as had been so sanguinely an- 
ticipated. Debt even under these circumstances was 
found to be still a burden and a danger. The growth 
of the town in many cases did not meet expectation, 
or if no disappointment was experienced in that par- 
ticular, it came in the slower growth and limited pros- 
perity of the church which had planned its expendi- 
ture upon what it hoped for rather than on what it 
had. Thus it came to pass that churches crippled with 
debt grew to be alarmingly numerous, and the effec- 
tive denominational strength was thereby greatly les- 
sened. The seeming growth might almost be reckoned 
a decline, so many churches were crippled, so much of 
church property at promising points was mortgaged 
and endangered, 

The change for the better which in due time came 
will be noticed presently. In the meanwhile another 
feature of our history during the period here under 
view must be noticed. It was in church and denomi- 
national affairs, as in those of the nation, a time of 
debate and division, upon one question especially 
which bore upon well-nigh every other with which 



CHURCH GROWTH 143 

the American people had to deal. It is, indeed, not 
surprising that the anti-slavery and pro-slavery issue 
should become so almost universal in religious as well 
as in secular relations. Yet perhaps as a phenomenon 
of the time it was little realized in that view. The 
American people became accustomed to meeting it at 
every turn, to finding it confronting them not only in 
national missionary organization, but in every form of 
such organization, not excepting the local church 
itself. 

No question will be raised here, as to sincerity of 
opinion or worthiness of motive in those who took 
part in the debates hence arising, whether upon the 
one side or the other. Full recognition of what is 
just in this particular was not to be looked for while 
the great issue was still pending. To a later genera- 
tion it belongs to bear testimony, as is due, to the 
varied influences under which opinion at such a time 
is shaped and the mixture of motive by which actors 
in the debate are unconsciously swayed. At the time 
division is inevitable. In the heat of controversy 
alienations, even in circles where mutual confidence 
and affection are most surely to be looked for, will 
occur. The pending issue, indeed, may claim for 
itself an absorption of interest, and a place on all 
occasions out of proportion, even, to its own magnitude, 
however great ; and earnest souls may be swayed by a 
conviction that to this one interest all others whatso- 
ever must yield. 

These two causes thus briefly indicated — unwise 



144 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

measures in local church enterprise and radical divi- 
sion of opinion and feeling upon the immense national 
issue then pending— very much affected the ordinary 
conditions of church growth during the first of the 
two periods into which for a present purpose the time 
covered in our history is divided. Other causes of 
hindrance might also be added. People arriving in a 
new country, and establishing themselves in their 
homes and in their business under conditions alto- 
gether new, do not always come prepared for the effect 
upon themselves of changes so great. They do not 
anticipate the unaccustomed engrossments of those 
cares and labors and perplexities which a wholly 
new environment causes to grow upon them, perhaps 
with little of consciousness on their own part. If 
sustaining church relations in the home thev have 
left in some Eastern or Southern State, they not un- 
naturally imagine that any change of these may be 
left until they shall be better prepared for entering 
into new ones ; or if they bring church letters with 
them, the use of these may be deferred, from one 
cause or another, until it becomes too much a matter 
of mortification to reveal the fact that such are pos- 
sessed at all. Thus the measure of church growth 
signally fails of any due proportion even to growth in 
those elements of population which might be expected 
to aid greatly in fostering it on the older as well as 
the new fields. 

The years antedating the civil war must then be 
spoken of as years of hindrance and delay, in spite of 



CHURCH GROWTH 145 

all that was actually seen in multiplication of churches 
and organization of new enterprises such as in these 
pages are described. During this first period, indeed, 
much of what is now seen in education, in State or- 
ganization, in Sunday-schools, originated. It was, 
however, for all that, rather a time of beginning and 
ordeal than of growth and prosperity. Following 
the war came change more or less in all these condi- 
tions. The issue of the war itself put an end to that 
which had been a chief cause of division in churches 
and in the general methods of the denomination. The 
new spirit in national affairs, as these shook them- 
selves clear of the crippling effects of the war, was 
felt in many directions, and may be said even to have 
inspired new methods in matters of religious organiza- 
tion and religious work. 

In the matter of church debt, indeed, indication of 
a better policy began to appear before the time of 
which we now speak. The paralyzing effect of such 
burdens came to be realized, and the fact to appear 
that a house of worship with a heavy mortgage upon 
it was not the sort of offering to make in the impres- 
sive ceremony of a public dedication. Churches 
already in debt instituted measures for immediate 
relief. The aid of ministers gifted with a power of 
public appeal was called in. Efforts to clear away 
church debts, with the fact well understood that it 
must be done with personal sacrifice, real and strenu- 
ous, on the part of the membership, became a feature 
of the time. Men like Dr. W. W. Everts of Chicago, 

K 



14G HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Dr. G. J. Johnson, Lewis Raymond, Rev. E. S. 
Graham, and others, became conspicuous in the good 
service rendered. The church edifice fund of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society was also in 
certain cases made available to a like end. As a 
result, these burdens were removed and a lesson im- 
pressed which remained as a permanent effect of the 
experience had. It came to be the rule that whatever 
of arrears remained of expense in building must be 
provided for before the dedication. This itself often 
required great effort and no small sacrifice, and was 
often occasion of regret as a feature in the ceremony 
of dedication not to be desired, yet better by far than 
that which had been so damaging, in some instances 
disastrous, in former years. 

In view of all, it may be claimed with justice that 
the religious development bore some just proportion 
to that which was seen in secular affairs. Instances 
have already been given in these pages of the prompt 
activity of Christian men at the very moment when 
the settlement at some selected spot began. And it 
should be emphasized in the record to how great an 
extent these were not missionaries, having the teach- 
ing of truth and the care of spiritual interests of the 
new community in especial charge, nor even minis- 
ters, but laymen, burdened with many cares in pro- 
viding home and livelihood for the families they had 
brought so far from the old home, and from compara- 
tive ease and comfort, to share the hazards and hard- 
ships now to be faced. Often these were awake to the 



CHURCH GROWTH 147 

religious needs of those about them, and to the duty 
of providing for them, as among the measures first to 
be adopted. Dr. John T. Temple sends almost at 
once a thousand miles for some faithful preacher of 
the word to be sent to the infant Chicago. The first 
settlers at Cincinnati, having no minister among them, 
institute meetings for themselves, and have a house of 
worship before they have yet found a pastor. The 
first Baptists in Southern Illinois become a church 
almost before they have made themselves homes, and 
out of their own number call ministers who in subse- 
quent years are to feed the flock of God. 

The fact was typical. In the subsequent growth of 
churches it was the stanch laymen who so often took 
the burden and cheerfully bore it. The pastorate has 
from early times in the West been, in most cases, 
painfully fluctuating. If it had been that on every 
occasion of a pulpit left vacant church work must be 
paralyzed, or even seriously checked, where would all 
these churches have been to-day ? Let what will be 
said as to limited ideas upon pastoral support, or lack 
of generous giving for needy objects, or difficulties of 
discipline, growing out of differences and collisions, 
it should ever be remembered that even the most 
zealous and persistent ministry would have failed 
without the backing of a lay-membership closely ob- 
servant of needs and opportunities, prompt to recog- 
nize a leadership worthy of respect, and often moving 
onward in needed enterprises with no leadership at all. 

This is not to disparage the Western ministry. The 



148 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

roll of justly honored names here will bear compari- 
son with that which any other section of the country 
may offer. The Western ministry has been peculiarly 
characterized by energy of character, by intellectual 
vigor, by hardihood and self-sacrifice. As compared 
with that of other sections it may have at one time 
been deficient in culture, yet while this was compen- 
sated by other qualities more needful under such 
6onditions as existed, it has grown less and less char- 
acteristic of the Western ministry, as changes in these 
communities themselves have called for improvement 
at this point. But laymen in Western churches have 
often, in the changes occurring, found themselves 
compelled to meet the exigency of a vacant pastor- 
ate j even where no such vacancy existed, to be at the 
front in many a testing emergency. 

In what is said in former chapters of pioneers on 
the Western field, we have furnished numerous in- 
stances confirmatory of what is here said, of both 
ministers and laymen. As we come forward to the 
later period when church growth rather than church 
planting is the subject in view, names crowd for due 
mention in greater and greater number. The West, 
indeed, especially at the centers of population and 
influence, and in fact on all the important local fields, 
has been fortunate in the ministry it has been able to 
secure. Enterprising young men graduating at East- 
ern schools have welcomed opportunities of service 
where consecrated manhood might find occasion for all 
the resources at its command. The Western schools 



CHURCH GROWTH 149 

have drawn to share in their growing advantages of 
culture young men already infused with Western en- 
thusiasm and familiar with Western needs. Able 
and devoted men have been found willing to ex- 
change the most inviting pastorates East for the 
opportunity of sharing in the growth and the ever 
enlarging scope of work in the West. Meanwhile 
opportunity of reciprocity in this regard has been 
welcomed, and those who had identified themselves 
with Western life during many years, and watched 
the development out of crudeness and deficiency into 
improved conditions at so many points of view, have 
found satisfaction in the desire so often shown in 
Eastern centers to command for prominent pulpits 
those born and reared on Western soil. 

We shall illustrate what has thus far been said in 
general upon the special topic in this chapter by par- 
ticulars of church progress at two of the main centers 
of population in the five States considered, reserving 
like particulars as to other parts of the field for a 
later page in the record we make. If we turn back 
once more to the scenes of the earliest beginning in 
Western Baptist history, and take up the narrative 
afresh at the point where it was left in a former chapter, 
we find ourselves in the particular here considered at 
the point of time where Dr. S. W. Lynd, after a pastor- 
ate of fifteen years at the church organized under his 
labors, the Ninth Street Church, Cincinnati, resigned 
in 1845 to accept that of the Second Baptist Church 
in St. Louis. A man of brilliant genius and marked 



150 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

peculiarities in many ways, succeeded him, Dr. E. L. 
Magoon. The church prepared for his coming by the 
payment of a debt which bad accumulated, and by 
repairing its house of worship. In 1847 it had the 
privilege of entertaining the national missionary so- 
cieties, the first occasion, as we believe, of these anni- 
versaries being held in the West. Dr. Magoon 's 
pastorate was brief. After about one year of service 
a new enterprise in church organization was planned, 
and he resigned at the Ninth Street in order to be- 
come its leader. This new enterprise failing, through 
lack of necessary means, Dr. Magoon accepted a call 
to New York City, the remainder of his life being 
devoted to Eastern pastorates. 

Dr. E. G. Robinson was at this time, in connection 
with his work as professor in the Western Theologi- 
cal Institute at Covington, preaching for the Walnut 
Street Baptist Church in Cincinnati. In 1849 the 
Ninth Street Church invited him to its pastorate. 
The call w r as accepted and with him came the church 
to w T hich he had ministered, thirty in number, to be 
identified with the larger body. Dr. Robinson held 
the pastorate some four years, resigning in 1853 to 
accept the professorship of Systematic Theology in 
the Theological Seminary at Rochester, N. Y. The 
four years of this pastorate were a period in the his- 
tory of the church long after recalled with uncommon 
satisfaction. The pulpit of the Ninth Street Church 
took rank with the most influential in the city. A 
course of lectures on Sunday evenings by Dr. Robin- 



CHURCH GROWTH 151 

son, exposing the errors of various system of unbe- 
lief, " filled the house with attentive listeners, min- 
isters of other denominations and many scholarly 
men being among them." The eminent service of 
Dr. Robinson during many years in the position to 
whose claim upon him he was reluctantly surrendered 
by the church, in after-years in the presidency of 
Brown University and later still as professor of ethics 
and apologetics in the new University of Chicago, 
amply confirmed the high estimate formed during this 
pastorate of his rich endowments, whether as preacher, 
as theologian, or as qualified to instruct in those 
branches of human learning which most severely tax 
insight and capacity. 

During the months of vacancy following the depar- 
ture of Dr. Robinson, the pulpit was acceptably sup- 
plied by Rev. Marsena Stone, until 1854, when Rev. 
W. F. Hansell of Philadelphia, was called. Two 
events of much interest to Baptist growth in Cincin- 
nati occurred during the four years of this pastorate : 
the opening of a Baptist mission among the Germans, 
and the organization of a German Baptist church 
under the labors of Rev. P. W. Bickel, in later years 
so eminently useful as leader in Baptist work in Ger- 
many itself; and also the organization of the Mount 
Auburn Church, in 1856. The immediate fruits of 
Mr. Hansell's work appeared in the baptism during 
his pastorate of one hundred and sixty-nine persons. 
The brief pastorate of Rev. E. T. Robinson followed, 
whose early death was much lamented, with supplies 



152 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

of the pulpit during the vacancy so caused, by Rev. 
O. N. Sage, Rev. William Ashmore, and Rev. J. F. 
Elder. In 1864 Rev. Way land Hoyt became pastor, 
his service continuing until 1867, when he accepted 
a call to Brooklyn, N. Y. His instructive and inspir- 
ing pulpit service and well-directed work in the pas- 
torate added one hundred and ten to the membership 
by baptism, the house of worship being, meanwhile, 
remodeled at a final cost, of some ninety thousand 
dollars. Rev. F. M. Ellis, who followed Dr. Hoyt in 
1868, resigned after one year to take the pastorate of 
a new church in the city, the Second Baptist Church. 
After him came Dr. Reuben Jeffrey, in 1869, whose 
pastorate of four years was a highly fruitful one, being 
of special service to the church in the removal of its 
debt. Eighteen months passed after the close of Dr. 
Jeffrey's pastorate before his successor was found in 
the person of Dr. S. W. Duncan. In 1875 Dr. Dun- 
can accepted the service offered him, remaining until 
1883, when he left to become pastor of the Second 
Baptist Church in Rochester, N. Y. Dr. Duncan's 
pulpit service was esteemed as " eminently sound, 
earnest, and forcible," frequently " in substance and 
style of the highest order." His executive ability 
was of especial service. In his work, says the record 
we follow, he u was ably seconded by Mrs. Duncan, a 
woman of superior mental ability, wise judgment, and 
active sympathy." As a successor to Dr. Duncan the 
church was so fortunate as to secure the service of 
Rev. Johnston Myers, who came to it in the summer 



CHURCH GROWTH 153 

of 1884, upon his graduation at the Rochester Theo- 
logical Seminary. His spirit of enterprise and his 
various resource in methods for enlarging the scope of 
Christian work, were felt as an inspiring evangelical 
force, not only in his own church, but throughout the 
city. His remarkably efficient pastorate continued 
until the present year (1895), when he resigned to 
become pastor of the Immanuel Church of Chicago. 
In a few months his place was acceptably filled by 
Rev. Warren G. Partridge, of Scranton, Pa. 

We may instance the Ninth Street Church in Cin- 
cinnati as an example of the power exerted by 
churches located at the great centers, bringing to their 
pulpits men of commanding ability, and through the 
inspiration of their leadership and their example felt 
far and wide in the development of a kindred spirit 
and like effective service. It is of course impossible 
to do otherwise than select what is most representative 
in church growth at points like the one here con- 
sidered. A more ample allowance of space would 
enable us to mention other work and workers belong- 
ing to the history as fully written. The pastorates of 
Rev. Daniel Shepardson, d. d., and of Rev. S. K. 
Leavitt, at the First Church in Cincinnati ; of Rev. W. 
C. Wilkinson, Rev. A. S. Hobart, and others at the 
Mt. Auburn Church in the same city, with other good 
service by devoted pastors ; of the work in city mis- 
sions during many years by Rev. J. Emery ; and the 
conspicuous usefulness of laymen like H. Thane 
Miller and Dr. W. H. Doane, whose fame as a musi- 



154 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

cal composer is in many lands, would afford ample 
topics for gratifying mention. We can only allude to 
all this in general terms. 1 

Our record of events at Chicago, in a former chap- 
ter, paused at the death of the first pastor there, Rev. 
A. B. Freeman. Changes of pastors following him 
were quite frequent, although his immediate successor, 
Rev. I. T. Hinton, coming to the church in 1 835, re- 
mained until 1842, a period of seven years. In the 
year last named he was succeeded by Rev. C. B. 
Smith, after whom, in 1843, came Rev. E. H. Ham- 
lin, whose successor, in 1845, was Rev. Miles Sanford. 
His service closed at the end of two years, when an 
interval of fourteen months preceded the settlement of 
Dr. Elisha Tucker, in 1848. His health giving way 
in 1851, he resigned, and was after one year succeeded 
by Rev. J. C. Burroughs. Very early in this new 
pastorate, the house of worship, built in 1843, while 
Rev. E. H. Hamlin was pastor, was burned. The 
church began at once the work of rebuilding, the 
cornerstone of the new edifice being laid on July 4, 
1853, and the house dedicated in November, 1854. 
The pastorate of Mr. Burroughs continued until 1856, 

1 "The Ohio Baptist Manual" for 1893, reported for Cincinnati 
ten churches, including one German, with an aggregate member 
ship of 3,319. Of these, the principal were: Ninth Street, Johns 
ton Myers, pastor, with 1,184 members; First, M. C. Lockwood 
pastor, 299; Third, G. R. Kobbins pastor, 545; Columbia, "W 
E. Stevens, pastor, 300; Mount Auburn, 183; Walnut Hills, W 
Louck, pastor, 281 ; Dayton Street, J. Ferris Patton, pastor, 
112. Much illustrative of more recent growth must be omitted, 



CHURCH GROWTH 155 

when having entered fully upon the enterprise of 
founding the projected university, he resigned, and 
was succeeded by Rev. W. G. Howard, d. d., who 
had been for several years pastor of the Second Bap- 
tist Church in Rochester, N. Y. Upon his resigna- 
tion, in 1859, Dr. W. W. Everts was called from 
the pastorate of the Walnut Street Baptist Church, 
Louisville, Ky., to that of the First Baptist Church 
in Chicago. 

The period of nearly a quarter of a century covered 
by this brief record may, in some sense, be viewed as 
standing by itself in the history of Chicago Baptists. 
With the pastorate of Dr. Everts and the founding of 
the university, and soon after the theological seminary, 
the Baptist cause began to assume dimensions some- 
what more nearly proportioned " to what was going 
forward in the city itself. The establishment of a 
denominational journal, also, destined to serve as an 
organ for the entire Northwest, still further empha- 
sized the importance of Chicago as a denominational 
center. Denominational enterprise in the establish- 
ment of new churches had already taken its first steps in 
that good direction. In 1842 the Tabernacle Church 
had been organized on the west side of the river, 
under Rev. C. B. Smith, who left the First Church 
for this purpose, taking thirty-two members with 
him. Soon after Dr. Everts began his pastorate a 
third church was organized, and a house built on what 
was then called Edina Place, at the corner of Harri- 
son Street, its first pastor being Rev. Robert Boyd, 



156 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

called to this post from his pastorate at Waukesha, 
Wis., the church under his devoted and spiritual 
ministry enjoying signal prosperity. Removing after 
a time to a new location at the corner of Wabash 
Avenue and Eighteenth Street, and later to another 
location on Michigan Avenue corner of Twenty-third, 
it became the Michigan Avenue, as it is now the Im- 
manuel Church. A second church on the west side 
was formed in 1856, the Union Park, now the 
Fourth Baptist Church, with Rev. A. J. Joslyn as 
the first pastor; and in 1857 the North Baptist 
Church, with Rev. J. A. Smith as pastor, uniting this 
service with his editorial work. 

A marked event of the period covered by the pastor- 
ate of Dr. Everts — a period of nearly twenty years 
from 1859 to 1879 — was the change of location, in 
1864, of the First Church to Wabash Avenue, its 
property at the corner of La Salle and Washington 
Streets being sold to the city Chamber of Commerce 
for sixty-five thousand dollars, and this money used 
in part in a way to forward the several church enter- 
prises of which we have already spoken. The house 
of worship, also, was given to a new interest, taking 
the name of the Second Baptist Church, the building 
being taken down and removed to the corner of 
Morgan and Monroe Streets on the West side, where 
it was re-erected. With this new interest the Taber- 
nacle Church was united, members of the First 
Church on that side of the river contributing to make 
it strong and efficient from the beginning. The dis- 



CHURCH GROWTH 157 

tribution of proceeds of sale of the First Church 
property was suggested by the fact that so many of 
those connected with the various new church enter- 
prises had been contributors to the acquisition of the 
property, so that it was felt to be a matter of justice 
and fairness that such a distribution should be made. 
The measure, as adopted, gave new life to some, espe- 
cially of the newer interests. The Second Church, 
under the pastorate of Rev. E. J. Goodspeed, called 
from that of the Baptist Church at Janesville, Wis., 
at once took rank with the most enterprising and effi- 
cient church organizations in the city of whatever de- 
nomination. The other and younger churches became 
conscious of a like impulse, while the mother of them 
all, the First Church, in the noble edifice erected on 
Wabash Avenue, began to claim, and rightfully, its 
position as among the foremost of American Baptist 
churches. The burning of its house of worship on 
Wabash Avenue and its removal, in 1875, to the 
present location in the more southern section of the 
city, were important events in its history. 

The subsequent history it is clearly impossible for 
us to follow in detail. New church enterprises con- 
tinued to multiply. In 1864 a mission at the corner 
of Thirtieth Street and Indiana Avenue, near the uni- 
versity, was organized under the ministry of Rev. J. 
A. Smith, out of which, at the end of some five years, 
grew the University Place Church, now the Memo- 
rial. In 1869 the Western Avenue Church began its 
prosperous career; in 1875 the Centennial; in 1877 



158 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

the Central, with Negro, German, Danish, and Swed- 
ish churches. Missions were founded, as the city grew 
and extended its limits, of which many in due time 
became churches. At the date of our present record, 
the English-speaking Baptist churches in Chicago 
and its near vicinity embraced in the Chicago Asso- 
ciation, number seventy-four, with a membership of 
sixteen thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, in 
which we include the numerous German, Scandina- 
vian, and colored churches. The city alone, with its 
suburbs, reports seventy churches, including all na- 
tionalities, with a membership of not far from fifteen 
thousand ; the number of missions sustained, without 
reference to nationality, twenty- five. 

It would be a grateful service indeed, to write in 
detail of the men who have been active in the Chicago 
Baptist ministry during the sixty years which this 
brief record covers. Dr. Everts was succeeded at the 
First Church by Dr. Lorimer, and he by Dr. Henson, 
the present pastor ; notable pastorates, all three, rank- 
ing the First Church pulpit with those in this country, 
of whatever denomination, whose fame is most widely 
spread. Dr. Lorimer left the First Church with a 
devoted corps of earnest men and women to raise up 
from its ashes the Michigan Avenue Church, which 
had been burned and its membership disheartened, 
Rev. K. B. Tupper being pastor at the time, with a 
heavy debt added to the burden of its misfortunes. 
How triumphantly successful this courageous venture 
proved is matter of undying record, the church tak- 



CHURCH GKOVfTH 159 

ing the name of Immanuel, perhaps in grateful rec- 
ognition of the fact that " God with us " had been 
so much their encouragement and their inspiration. 
Dr. Lorimer's removal to Boston brought to this con- 
spicuous pulpit a Boston pastor, Rev. O. P. Gifford, 
whose ministry continued the splendid record made 
by his predecessors ; of whom, besides Dr. Lorimer, 
and antedating the burning of the house of worship, 
we may name, while the church was at its old loca- 
tion on Wabash Avenue, Drs. Robert Boyd, E. G. 
Taylor, Samuel Baker, Jesse B. Thomas — under 
whose inspiring ministry the removal to Michigan 
Avenue, with the erection of the new house of worship 
occurred— F. M. Ellis, J. W. Custis, and K. B. 
Tupper. Also the present pastor, Rev. Johnston 
Myers (1895), who came to this important field from 
Ninth Street Church, Cincinnati. 

At the Second Church, Dr. E. J. Goodspeed, as his 
health began to give way, had an assistant for a time 
in the person of Rev. T. W. Goodspeed, his brother, 
who, upon the resignation of the former, became sole 
pastor, until called to the secretaryship of the Baptist 
Union for Theological Education ; Dr. Galusha An- 
derson came next, from the Strong Place Church, 
Brooklyn, and was succeeded, upon accepting the 
presidency of the university, by Rev. John Peddie, 
D. d., who, when called to the pastorate of the First 
Baptist Church in New York City, was in turn suc- 
ceeded by Rev. AY. M.Lawrence, d. d., Philadelphia, 
whose most successful pastorate still continues. These 



160 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEKN STATES 

enterprising pastors and eloquent preachers have made 
the church an evangelical force scarcely equaled by 
any in the city. With co-operation of men and 
women peculiarly suited to be helpers in the work, 
the church became under their ministry a very hive 
of Christian activity, with constant accessions to the 
membership of those coming from the darkness into 
the light. The Tabernacle Church, previous to its 
union with the Second Church, as before described, 
had enjoyed the ministry of such true men as Lewis 
Raymond, Archibald Kenyon, I. E. Kenney, and Dr. 
Nathaniel Colver, at the time of whose pastorate the 
change alluded to was made. 

The Fourth Baptist Church, originally the Union 
Park, has also a notable history. Its pastors, up to 
the time of the occupancy of its present new and hand- 
some house of worship at a more central and more 
desirable location, were A. J. Joslyn, I. S. Mahan, E. 
G. Taylor, Florence McCarthy, D. B. Cheney, D. D., 
E. B. Hulbert, d. d., and J. $. Kennard, D. D. The 
last three were especially characterized by pulpit 
power and the inspiration of an enterprising leader- 
ship. The pastor in charge at the date of our pres- 
ent record, Rev. Kittredge Wheeler, succeeding Rev. 
J. Wolfenden, is fully sustaining the reputation won 
for the Fourth Church pulpit by those who had pre- 
ceded him. 

The University Place Church, after two changes of 
location, finally secured a desirable one on Oakwood 
Boulevard, in the southern section of the city. Its 



CHURCH GROWTH 161 

history was in the earlier years characterized by some 
vicissitudes, occasioned partly by changes in the uni- 
versity and the theological seminary, with which it was 
much identified. For pastors it had, beginning with 
Dr. William Hague, in 1868, such as Dr. E. C. 
Mitchell, A. J. Frost, A. Owen, Kev. J. T. Burhoe, 
Dr. N. E. Wood, Rev. E. D. Burr ; Rev. L. A. 
Crandall, D. D., having been called in 1892, in which 
year his stimulating and enterprising ministry at this 
church began. 

As we write, Rev. C. Perren, d. d., at the West- 
ern Avenue Church, is still prosperous and honored in 
a pastorate which has already approached the term of 
full twenty years. The church, organized under the 
ministry of Rev. John Gordon, in 1869, has reason 
to felicitate itself that it has been favored with a pas- 
torate so steady, so judicious, with pulpit service 
characterized in a very peculiar degree by intellectual 
force and an evangelical spirit. In a like way favored 
has been the Centennial Church, whose origin dates 
from the year 1875. With Dr. N. E. Wood as its 
first pastor and Dr. C. E. Hewitt as his successor, it 
has now for many years had the ministry of Rev. A. 
K. Parker, D. D., one of the most scholarly men in 
the Baptist ministry, an influential member of the 
Board of the new University of Chicago, and a 
preacher and pastor whose hold upon the interest of 
those whom he serves, with solid results of well-di- 
rected teaching and labor, is more conspicuous year 
by year. 

L 



162 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Connected with other churches have been : With 
the North Church, Drs. S. W. Lynd, A. H. Strong, 
Adin A. Kendrick, afterward, daring the term of 
twenty-two years, president of Shurtleff College, 
Reuben Jeffrey, and O. T. Walker ; with the In- 
diana Avenue Church before its union with the First 
Church, Drs. M. E. Riddle, F. D. Rickerson, and 
Rev. W. W. Everts, Jr. ; with the Central Church 
Rev. E. O. Taylor and Rev. H. H. Barbour ; with 
the La Salle Avenue, Rev. T. B. Thames and Rev. 
H. O. Rowlands, D. D., whose successor in this pas- 
torate, J. Q. A. Henry, came to it from San Francisco 
in the summer of 1895. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ON THE GENEEAL FIELD 

BY no means the least interesting examples of 
progress in church planting and general devel- 
opment are found at those other less conspicuous 
centers which represent growth in population and in 
secular achievement, perhaps the more to he remarked 
as due to a spirit of enterprise widely prevailing. 
We continue our record in the line of this further de- 
velopment, resuming with the State of Indiana. 

Of the first sermon at Lafayette, by Rev. W. M. 
Pratt, D. D., preached in a tavern, with the bar for 
his pulpit, we have spoken in another connection. 
About the year 1837, or 1838, Rev. S. G. Miner was 
on the field. After some two years, he spent one year 
in a like service at Franklin, and then, in 1842, re- 
turned to Lafayette, where he remained until 1847. 
Rev. Anson Tucker, one of the five brothers so well 
known in the Baptist ministry of both the East and 
the West, succeeded him. Rev. T. L. Breckenridge 
followed, a gifted man and a brilliant preacher. Dr. 
O. B. Stone came next in a vigorous ministry of some 
years. 

The Lafayette pastors have found noble helpers in 
such men as Deacon Henderson, father of Prof. C. R. 

163 



164 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Henderson, of the University of Chicago, M. L. 
Pierce, Esq., and Deacons Kobert Brecken ridge and 
W. J. Roseberry. At Indianapolis not only the 
church, but the Sunday-school cause and the whole 
State found a most active and valuable friend and 
supporter in Deacon J. R. Osgood, and that of edu- 
cation, along with the church, in Mr. E. C. Atkins ; 
besides whom we name in that church, Henry Brad- 
ley, Henry Brady, and Nicholas McArty. These 
whom we name in Indiana are indeed only a few of 
many such, in this and in other States, whose service 
in every good cause throughout the West would en- 
title them to a lasting memorial. 

Of Franklin, as the educational center of the State, 
especial mention should be made. We avail our- 
selves again of President Stott's ample and exact in- 
formation upon the subject. He says : 

As early as 1829 an " arm " of the Blue River Church was 
formed at Franklin. Elder Chauncey Butler, father of Ovid 
Butler, the founder of Butler University near Indianapolis, 
was moderator, and Elder S. Harding, clerk. Elder Hard- 
ing was made pastor when, in 1833, the church felt able to 
support a pastor. In 1836 Rev. Byron Lawrence was called 
to the pastorate, and in 1837 Be v. A. R. Hinckley, who was 
engaged also in the college and was active in erecting a church 
building. Pastor Hinckley soon died, and was succeeded by 
Bev. S. Cx. Miner, well known in Illinois. After him came 
Bev. Gr. C. Chandler, at once pastor of the church and presi- 
dent of the college. 

Dr. Stott mentions in this connection an incident, 
characteristic of the time, which we will quote : 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 165 

President Chandler was from New England, and did not 
readily conform to the k l ways ' ' of his Franklin brethren, 
many of whom were from Kentucky. He wanted the mem- 
bers of the church to get themselves hymn books. They 
wanted the hymns ' ' lined out. ' ' By vote the church ordered 
the hymns lined out. He said "All right," but that he 
wouldn't line them ; and he didn't. 

Pastors who followed Dr. Chandler were" Rev. E. 
J. Todd, Rev. J. W. B. Tisdale, Rev. J. G. Kerr, 
and Rev. J. S. Read. Dr. Stott says : 

In 1852, or soon after, the differing tastes of the conserva- 
tive members and those of the college people, led to the for- 
mation of the East Franklin or College Church. President 
S. Bailey was pastor, and the church and Sunday-school had 
genuine spiritual prosperity, while many were converted. But 
wise brethren in the State saw that this state of things ' ' ought 
not to be," and so, after many consultations, the East Frank- 
lin Church, in 1859, joined the First Baptist Church of Frank- 
lin, and the sequel proved the wisdom of the concession. 

The space at our command will only permit us to 
speak of the origin of the church at Terre Haute, in 
1836, with nine members, under the ministry of Rev. 
Samuel K. Sparks ; of La Porte, in probably 1838, 
with Rev. Benjamin Sawin (good Father Sawin,) as 
the first pastor, Rev. Silas Tucker following him ; of 
Delphi, about 1832, under Rev. William Rees; of 
Yincennes much later, in 1864, of which Rev. J. S. 
Gillespie was first pastor, with Rev. L. D. Robinson, 
Rev. B. F. Cavins, D. D., Rev. S. M. Stimson, D. D., 
and Rev. D. Heagle, d. d., as subsequent ones. We 



166 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

can in this, as in other States, notice only represent- 
ative instances of church planting at centers of pop- 
ulation important in our present history. 

The origin of the First Church in Columbus, Ohio, 
antedates by some three or four years that at Cleve- 
land. We find it named on the list of churches rep- 
resented at the first anniversary of the Ohio Baptist 
State Convention in 1827, a delegate on that occasion 
being George Jeffries, who is made one of the Con- 
vention Board of trustees. A missionary society at 
Columbus, auxiliary to the Cincinnati Domestic Mis- 
sionary Society was one of those named as uniting 
to constitute the Convention in 1826. In Minutes of 
the anniversary of the Convention in 1833 we again 
find the name of George Jeffries. 

In 1835 Rev. T. R. Cressey came to Columbus 
under appointment of the Home Mission Society, 
continuing in service there until 1842. To Mr. 
Cressey succeeded Rev. D. A. Randall, followed by 
Rev. D. B. Cheney, in whose support the church was 
at first still aided by the society. Mr. Cheney came 
to Columbus, from Norwich, Conn., where his pastor- 
ate had been a highly successful one, yet from which 
he was drawn westward by his strong desire to share 
in the work on new fields. He was a native of 
Massachusetts, born at Southbridge, in that State, in 
1820. He was baptized at sixteen years of age by 
Dr. J. G. Binney, afterward so well known as a mis- 
sionary in Burma. To Dr. Binney he is said to have 
been, in his earlier Christian life, greatly indebted. 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 167 

He pursued his studies at the Worcester aud Shel- 
burne Falls Academies, and at Amherst College. At 
the age of twenty-three he was ordained at Mans- 
field, Conn. From the first years of his ministry, 
his mind was toward the West, and although after 
five years at Columbus, he returned East for a Phila- 
delphia pastorate, and although his marked execu- 
tive ability directed attention toward him repeatedly 
as a fit man for a secretaryship in one or other of the 
great national societies, his preference for the pastor- 
ate and for this kind of service in the West re- 
mained. In 1859 he came west again, this time to 
San Francisco, from which city he removed to Bos- 
ton, but in 1874 returned westward to Chicago, and 
from that time onward, was identified with Western 
interests, in pastorates at Chicago and Elgin, 111., and 
at Lima, O. While in Chicago he was an influential 
member of the Board of trustees of the theological 
seminary, his excellent judgment in matters of ad- 
ministration being held in the highest esteem by his 
associates there. 

We find it stated that while the first Baptist church 
in Dayton, Ohio, was constituted and recognized in 
1824, " there are traces of Baptists in the place as 
early as 1806, and for some time there had been preach- 
ing by traveling ministers/' l For particular men- 
tion we come forward to the date of 1856, at which 
time Rev. Samson Talbot, a name much honored in 

1 "Baptist Cyclopaedia." 



168 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Ohio history, became pastor. A native of Ohio, born 
in Urbana, in 1828, he was educated at Granville 
College and at Newton Theological Institute. His 
thoughts and wishes were at first toward the foreign 
field, and especially Siam, to which mission he ac- 
cepted an appointment by the Missionary Union. 
Some delay occurring, his purpose became changed, 
and in 1856 he accepted the call of the First Baptist 
Church at Dayton to become its pastor. His service 
here lasted until 1863, when he accepted the presidency 
of the college which is now Denison University. 

Next following Dr. Talbot, we find especial mention 
made of Rev. H. Harvey, D. D., who, about 1860, left 
the professorship of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral 
Theology at Hamilton, N. Y., to become pastor at Day- 
ton. His health failing, he returned to Hamilton in 
1867. In the following year, 1868, H. F. Colby was 
ordained pastor on completion of his studies at Newton. 
The son of Hon. Gardner Colby, whose name is so hon- 
orably identified especially with the educational history 
of the denomination in New England, Dr. Colby was 
permitted to see the Baptist strength in the city which 
was his first field of labor, increase in such a way 
that in due time it could be spoken of as, next after 
Cincinnati and Cleveland, exceeding in financial abil- 
ity and in moral power those of any other city in the 
State. Along with a memoir of his father, Dr. Colby 
has published various sermons, together with poems 
written for special occasions. In all State affairs that 
concern the denomination his position is that of a 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 169 

trusted and honored leader. In the membership of 
his church he had the satisfaction of numbering men 
with national reputation as leaders in great enterprises 
and generous givers in their behalf: notably, Dr. J. 
B. Thresher and his son, Mr. E. M. Thresher ; an- 
other of the family, U. M. Thresher, being for a num- 
ber of years, as mentioned elsewhere, a professor in 
Denison University. 

As representative of a class of men to whom Ohio 
owes much, we copy the following, furnished us by a 
correspondent : 

Rev. P. M. Weddell came from a successful pastorate at 
Pittsburg across the line to Ohio in 1855, and has for forty 
years illustrated in his pastoral settlements the good work of 
which so little is said publicly, but out of which comes so 
large a measure of the growth of churches in our medium- 
sized cities — the work of the evangelistic pastor. Upon invi- 
tation of the Home Mission Society, he took charge of the 
small flock in Canton, Ohio, in the year named, 1855. Can- 
vassing the town, going into shops and homes, he presently 
saw as fruit of his labor a gracious revival of religion and 
hundreds added to this church, this continuing from year to 
year. The same thing occurred at Wooster, Dayton, Troy, 
and Piqua, where he subsequently settled, being still (1894) 
the venerated under-shepherd at the last-named place. A 
gracious ingathering has occurred in nearly every year of his 
labors, and the secret of his success has been, as with so many 
others of his modest, faithful brethren in the less conspicuous 
fields, preaching and visiting. 

Early times in Granville, Ohio, have had some 
mention on a former page. As the educational and 
literary center of the State, to which may well be 



170 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

added its " beauty for situation," Granville has been 
a point of attraction second to none in the West. 
Under such pastorates as those of Rev. N. S. Burton, 
D. D., W. C. P. Rhoades, d. d., and Rev. C. J. Bald- 
win, D. d., who is, as we write, the able incumbent 
and thoughtful, earnest preacher, its pulpit has been 
no less a landmark in the Western Baptist ministry. 
At Toledo the pastorate of Rev. C. D. Morris, d. d., 
was noticeable for its steady continuance during many 
years, and its fruitfulness in the upbuilding of the 
church to which he came as pastor in 1867, having 
entered upon it as his first charge after graduation at 
Rochester. A native of Wales, born in 1839, he was 
at first a Presbyterian, but becoming a Baptist as a 
result of independent study of the New Testament, 
he united with the church at Urbana, Ohio. His 
death in the very meridian of his usefulness was felt 
as a great loss to the denomination in Ohio, where he 
was much esteemed for his manly intelligence as well 
as for his devotion and his pulpit and pastoral effi- 
ciency. 

As we come to Illinois, we find a church organized 
at Upper Alton, in 1830, by Rev. J. M. Peck, the first 
in that part of the State with the exception of Ed- 
wardsville, which was a little earlier. For two years 
the church met in a log cabin, its first house of wor- 
ship being built in 1837. The. first Sunday-school in 
the State was also at Upper Alton, Mr. Peck being 
the chief instrument in its organization. Of pastors 
who have served at Upper Alton, during the long 



ON THE GENEKAL FIELD 171 

period since, we may name as conspicuous, Rev. D. T. 
Morrill, d. d., for many years the earnest, eloquent, 
and useful incumbent, and the present pastor, Rev. 
William Green, now (1895) for a goodly number of 
years in charge. Dr. Morrill came to Upper Alton 
in 1876 from the pastorate of the Park Avenue Bap- 
tist Church in St. Louis, having previously for six 
years, until 1874, filled the same position at the 
Fourth Baptist Church in that city. Fourteen years 
had previously been spent in Newark, N. J., with 
the Fifth Baptist Church, which had been organized 
under his ministry. His course of study he had re- 
ceived at Union College and at Rochester, graduating 
finally in 1853. A vigorous, earnest, thoroughly 
evangelical preacher, his service was always fruitful 
in conversions and in church upbuilding. At Upper 
Alton, as elsewhere, it was highly valued. This we 
may also say of the minister now in charge, Rev. W. 
Green. 

Two years later than at Upper Alton, under the 
labors of Rev. Alvin Bailey, a church was organized at 
Alton City, celebrated in the early times of the anti- 
slavery agitation as the home of Rev. Elijah Parish 
Lovejoy, killed in 1837 in the course of a riot, the 
purpose of which was the destruction of the office in 
which his paper, " The Alton Observer/' anti-slavery 
in character, was printed. * 

In 1882 occurred the semi-centennial of the Alton 
Church. The occasion was made the more an inter- 
esting one by the presence of Rev. Melvin Jameson, 



172 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

who in 1875, after a pastorate of over nine years, dating 
from 1866, bad become a missionary in Burma, but 
bad now returned for restoration of bealtb. An inter- 
esting historical address by Mr. Jameson brought 
into the light mucli of important local history. The 
church to that date, 1882, had been served by eleven 
pastors, including the then present one, Rev. L. A. 
Abbott, D. D. i the names being as follows : Alvin 
Bailey, Ebenezer Rogers, Dwight Ives, afterward so 
well known as pastor in Suffield, Conn.; Gideon B. 
Perry, Otis Hackett, R. F. Ellis, R. R. Coon, Melvin 
Jameson, Nathaniel Butler, T. G. Field, L. A. Abbott. 
The church began its career with only nineteen mem- 
bers, but with names upon the list long after well 
known and influential in that section of the State, 
such as E. Marsh, Mark Pierson, Stephen Griggs, and 
others. The first house of worship was built during 
the pastorate of Mr. Ives, 1836-39. We find it said 
of the Alton Church, that during the period 1860 to 
1880 it had contributed to various forms of mission 
work one twenty-fourth part of the amount so given 
by the entire denomination in Illinois. 

The pastor, at the date of this history, Rev. L. A. 
Abbott, D. D., came to the charge which at the present 
date he has held during some fifteen years, from La 
Crosse, Wis., where he had enjoyed a fruitful pastor-' 
ate of seven years, with a previous one of four years 
at Rochester, Minn. A son of Massachusetts, he had 
like so many other New England youth taken early 
to the sea. A Christian boy, however, having been 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 173 

baptized at the age of fourteen, in Beverly, his native 
town, he found the life of a sailor was not the one ap- 
pointed him. His education preparatory for the min- 
istry he received at Worcester Academy, and after an 
interval at sea for restoration of health by failure of 
which his studies had been interrupted, he was or- 
dained in Med ford, Mass., and after service there and 
at Middleborough, being honored by his townsmen in 
both places by election to the State Legislature, he 
came in 1868 to the West, which since has been glad 
to claim him for its own. 

Both Alton City and Upper Alton have been from 
the beginning centers of denominational influence in 
Illinois ; partly because of the location at the latter of 
what was the only Baptist college in the State, and 
partly because of the zeal and ability of both pastors 
and laymen there, and in towns more or less adja- 
cent. While the great river remained a principal 
channel of commerce and travel, towns and cities 
along its banks, or contiguous to it, grew rapidly in 
population, wealth, and influence. Changes intro- 
duced by that great organ of revolution in State and 
national conditions, the railway, have in some degree 
affected the situation in the particular named, at least 
so far as to create competition at points farther to the 
east and north. Yet Quincy, where we find Rev. 
Ezra Fisher planting a church in 1836, and Rock 
Island, where one year later, in 1837, a church was 
organized in the cabin of Lemuel Ludden, with a 
home missionary soon upon the ground in the person 



174 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

of Rev. C. E. Brown, centers of population and in- 
fluence have steadily grown up, with many attractions 
in locations of beauty and the advantages of a de- 
voted and able ministry for churches responsive to 
their leadership. 

Churches with a future of influence and evangel- 
ical power before them, grew up at points more in- 
land, in Madison and Morgan counties, as at Carroll- 
ton, Winchester, Jerseyville, Whitehall. Alvin 
Bailey, in 1833-34, represented the Home Mission 
Society in labor from Alton to Carrollton; in 1843- 
47, we find him at Jacksonville ; in 1847-48, Rev. 
W. F. Boyakin is at Jerseyville, and Justus Bulkley 
in 1848-52 ; Joel Sweet is at Whitehall, Manches- 
ter, and Big Springs in 1842, serving all three — Rev. 
B. B. Hamilton having his name in later years long 
identified with the church first named ; Gardner Bart- 
lett, at Winchester, in 1832-33. Alvin Bailey, Gard- 
ner Bartlett, William Spencer, John Logan, writes 
Rev. E. S. Walker, of Springfield, " became as house- 
hold names at many a fireside, and are still remem- 
bered by older Baptists of this region, as devoted 
men of God who served faithfully and well in lay- 
ing foundations." To the names so mentioned many 
others might be added. 

Only brief mention is possible to us of the earliest 
history at Canton, with I. D. Newell, 1841-43, Alba 
Gross, 1844-46, S. G. Miner, 1847-61, D. H. Cooley, 
1871-79, as pastors ; or of its later history under 
other pastors, conspicuously the long-continued and 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 175 

in many ways remarkable service of Rev. Charles 
Whiting, D. D. Dr. Whiting is remembered at 
Quincy for a fruitful ministry at the First Church, 
and especially at Canton, where his work and his life, 
in the year 1893, came to a close. Mr. Miner, also, 
at the age of eighty-six, in the same year, ended at 
Bloomington his long life of faithful service. To 
these two men the church in Canton is much indebted 
for a prosperity that may be said to have been un- 
broken from the very beginning of its history. 

Galesburg has had, during some of the most prosper- 
ous years of its history, the pastoral service of Rev. 
¥m, M. Haigh, terminating in 1877, when he became 
District Secretary of the Home Mission Society. 
Under the recent pastorate of Rev. O. W. Van Osdel 
it has enjoyed exceptional prosperity, crowned in the 
early part of the year 1894 with the completion and 
dedication of its present noble sanctuary. The rec- 
ord at Decatur opens in 1847, with the ministry of 
Burton B. Carpenter, followed by those of Charles 
H. Gates, Nelson Alvord, and John N. Tolman ; the 
last named, son of Rev. J. F. Tolman, especially 
honored and esteemed among Baptists of Illinois. 
In late years the briefer service of Rev. F. G. 
Thearle, shortened by failure of health, and later the 
longer and brilliant one of Rev. G. B. Vosburgh, 
D. D., have conspicuous record, succeeded by that of 
Rev. C. E. Torrey, whose service closed, with his life, 
in May, 1894, almost at the outset of what promised 
to be a career of brilliant service. 



176 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

A like brief record must content us of the history 
at other points • as at Bloomington, where I. D. 
Newell is found in 1836-40, Lvman Whitney, 1844- 
46, and later, L. L. Lansing, O. B. Stone, C. E. 
Hewitt, D. D., 1868-76, J. L^ Jackson, and W. B. 
Riley — the last now a vigorous preacher and enter- 
prising pastor in Chicago, and Dr. Jackson's imme- 
diate successor at Bloomington. Mr. Biley was suc- 
ceeded, in the summer of 1894, by Rev. F. C. Win- 
bigler, from the Pacific coast. At Joliet and Lock- 
port, F. W. Ingmire was pastor in 1848-50, J. F. 
Childs, 1853-54, W. D. Clark, 1854-56, the most 
recent and prosperous ones being J. W. Conley and 
George R. Wood, and H. J. White (in a church 
newly organized) ; at Aurora, in the church organ- 
ized about 1844, W. S. Goodno is found in 1851-52, 
I. D. Newell in 1852-54, Charles Button, E. H. 
Brooks, later ; and of the church more recently or- 
ganized, the Park Place, O. O. Fletcher and F. Nel- 
son Glover. 

We mention also, Belvidere, where a fortieth anni- 
versary was celebrated in 1876, whose first house of 
worship bad been built in 1839, its second in 1845, 
and the present spacious one in 1868, among whose 
pastors are named : Prof. S. S. Whitman, one of the 
three students forming the first class at Newton, Dr. 
Barnas Sears being another, S. A. Estee in 1848, 
Charles H. Roe in 1851, coming from England with 
a record there already made of conspicuous useful- 
ness at Birmingham; H. J. Eddy, 1865-69, N. W. 



ON THE GENEEAL FIELD 177 

Miner, and at present the efficient pastor, R. S. 
Walker j Belvidere with a prosperous second church 
on the south side of the river ; Belvidere which gave 
to the American Baptist ministry the eloquent preacher 
and magnetic leader, Henry C. Mabie, home sec- 
retary of the Missionary Union ; then Rockford, 
with Warren F. Parrish as perhaps its first minister, 
Ichabod Clark, as during many prosperous years a 
later one, W. A. Stanton, ph. d., C. H. Moscrip, 
D. d., as latest of all, the First Church being in more 
recent times cheered by the presence of a sister church 
over the river, with J. T. Burhoe as a recent and R. F. 
Y. Pierce as a present pastor, faithful and efficient 
men ; Freeport, to which John P. Parsons came in 
1843, and James Schofield in 1845, T. L. Brecken- 
ridge in 1851, Thomas Reese in 1853, which has 
numbered among later pastors D. H. Cooley, D. D., 
and Rev. A. W. Fuller, which also had the wise 
counsels and strong support in its membership of 
Hon. Joseph M. Bailey, d. d., Chief Justice of the 
Illinois Supreme Court; and Galena, with W. B. 
Morey, Joel Wheeler, Otis Hackett, Lyman Palmer, 
Asahel Chapin, and F. Ketcham on its list of early 
pastors. Elgin we mention last ; its first pastor Rev. 
J. E. Ambrose, its second A. J. Joslyn, following 
whom came, among others, J. W. Parmlv, W. L. 
Everett, L. M. Woodruff, d. d., C. K. Colver, D. B. 
Cheney, D. D., George C. Vosburgh, D. D., with Wal- 
ter M. Walker, now in charge. A recent new or- 
ganization, with Rev. E. C. Stover as pastor, extended 

M 



178 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Baptist efficiency and fruitfulness in the beautiful 
city, whose population, as we write, is reported at 
twenty- five thousand. Among laymen long influential 
and honored in the church and city, we name E. K. W. 
Cornell, J. H. Bosworth, and R. W. Padelford, the 
last named, as mentioned on an earlier page, during 
full forty years clerk of the Chicago Association. 

Among centers of influence, if not so much of pop- 
ulation, in Michigan, Ann Arbor, next after Detroit, 
is to be conspicuously mentioned. Upon resigning 
his pastorate here in 1888, after a service of seven- 
teen years, Dr. Haskell, in his sermon, said : 

The letters dismissing from the church in Farmington those 
who organized this church bore date May 10, 1828. The 
members were Rev. Moses Clark, Lucy and Sally Clark, 
Elizabeth and Nancy Brown, Benjamin Slocum, Phebe His- 
cock, Charles Stewart. It is sixty years since the rootlet vine 
was thus brought here and planted. It is fifty-six years since 
it was transplanted from the farmhouse of the pastor on the 
river bank below us to this village. Brother Daniel R. 
Brown and wife were then baptized, and the same day 
he commenced his service in the deacon's office, which he 
still holds. Doubtless he and his wife are the only sur- 
vivors of the little membership. The pastors who followed 
Elder Clark — who by some old settlers is believed to have 
conducted the first religious service ever held in Ann Arbor, 
as early as the spring of 1825, and who, I think, was the sec- 
ond ordained Baptist minister in Michigan — the pastors who 
followed were : J. S. Twiss, Harvey Miller, W. L. Brown, 
Allen A. Guernsey, Oliver Cromwell Com stock, Marvin 
Allen, Andrew Ten-Brook, C. Deland, E. S. Dunham, Sam- 
uel Graves, M. W. Gunnison, John M. Gregory, A. L. 
Freeman, S. Cornelius, N. S. Burton, S. Haskell. 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 179 

The pastorate of Dr. Haskell, as we said, had lasted 
during seventeen years from 1871, when it began. 
The latest pastorate, recently closed at the date of this 
writing, that of Rev. A. S. Carman, worthily con- 
tinued the history which records names so honorable. 
Of those given in the list by Dr. Haskell, Dr. O. C. 
Comstock was complimented by the people of his dis- 
trict in an election to Congress. Dr. Gregory's name 
has been deservedly an honored one in the educational 
history of Michigan and Illinois; and Dr. N. S. 
Burton has a record in Ohio as pastor for some seven 
or eight years of the church in Granville in that State, 
and active in educational matters there, later well 
known in eastern States, alike as pastor and as author. 
Mr. Carman came worthily into this succession, filling 
the position ably for several years, and adding to his 
reputation as pastor and preacher that of superior 
culture and a genial Christian manhood. 

Dr. Haskell came to Ann Arbor from Kalamazoo. 
In a sermon on occasion of the dedication of a new 
house of worship by the Baptist church in that city, 
June 18, 1871, and afterward printed, we find him 
saying : 

It is now just forty years since Thomas W. Merrill came 
from the eastern part of this State, where he had spent the 
preceding year mostly in teaching a select school at Ann 
Arbor, and commenced his efforts to plant a Baptist church 
and a Baptist institution of learning in this county. A single 
log cabin was then the only prophecy of Kalamazoo. The 
first church formed in that part of Michigan was at Gales- 
burg. From that church came some of the members who 



180 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

joined in organizing this one in Kalamazoo, the organization 
being made in 1835. 

Of pastors serving the church from that time for- 
ward are mentioned Rev. Jeremiah Hall, who had 
come to Michigan from Townsend, Vt, in his later 
life pastor at Norwalk and Granville, Ohio, becom- 
ing, in 1853, president of Granville College, the name 
of the college being changed during his presidency to 
Denison University. Dr. Hall was succeeded by Dr. 
J. A. B. Stone, following whom came W. L. Eaton, 
Edward Anderson, Dr. M. G. Hodge, and Dr. Samuel 
Haskell. 

Familiar names are noted at Grand Rapids between 
the years 1842 and 1860— T. Z. R. Jones, Charles A. 
Jenison, A. J, Bingham, L. F. Holt. In 1870, Rev. 
Samuel Graves, who had resigned his professorship 
at Kalamazoo, became the pastor, continuing some 
twelve years until called into educational service of 
the Home Mission Society at Atlanta, Ga. During 
this pastorate the prosperity began, in course of which 
a spacious and attractive house of worship was built, 
and which, under the subsequent pastorates of Rev. 
Kerr B. Tupper and Rev. J. L. Jackson, has made 
Grand Rapids a representative instance of Western 
Baptist progress. The one church, now Fountain 
Street, has grown to five, and the few who composed 
the original organization to a total membership in all 
the churches of some one thousand five hundred. 

For Ypsilanti we find a record beginning with 
Rev. John Mitchell as missionary pastor. 1841-42 ; 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 181 

followed by Lyman H. Moore, 1843-48. In later 
years we note the fruitful pastorates of Rev. C. E. 
Hewitt, Rev. J. S. Boyden, during seven years, with 
one hundred and sixty -three persons baptized here 
and at Franklin, Ind., where he had spent a year, and 
Rev. J. Loren Cheney, son of the late Dr. D. B. 
Cheney ; the two first named, Messrs Hewitt and 
Boyden, in after years rendering valuable service in 
promoting the financial interest of schools of learning 
— Mr. Boyden at Kalamazoo and Dr. Hewitt at 
Chicago. Rev. J. L. Cheney, the scholarly and 
amiable young minister has, as we write, recently 
closed a pastorate of some years at this church, with, 
as his numerous friends hope, many years yet before 
him of good servioe in other fields, a like earnest hope 
being cherished, for their father's sake and their own, 
for his brother, Rev. D. B. Cheney, on his great field 
at West Superior, Wis. At Lansing, the State capital, 
we find the Home Mission Society giving aid in the 
support of Rev. P. C. Day foot, 1852-54 ; Lyman H. 
Moore, 1857-59; George H. Hickox, 1866-68. In 
subsequent years Rev. E. H. E. Jameson, d. d., came 
to them after many years of good service in Omaha, 
Neb., to be followed at Lansing, upon becoming dis- 
trict secretary of the Home Mission Society, by Rev. 
L. D. Temple, a graduate at Morgan Park, and who 
had made a good record as pastor near Chicago and 
in New York City. Mr. Temple has recently re- 
signed, and is at this writing (1895) pastor at Brattle- 
boro, Vt, 



1 



182 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEEN STATES 

If we pass to Wisconsin and to its State capital, we 
find there as bearing commissions of the Home Mis- 
sion Society, H. W. Kead, in 1847-49 ; John Wil- 
liams, with one-half of his time given to Iowa, 1849- 
50; S. S. Whitman, 1851 ; M. D. Miller, 1853-55; 
W. R. Brooks, 1856-58 ; W. H. Brisbane, 1860-61 ; 
Thos, Bright, 1875-76. For later record we have 
Eev. J. C. C. Clarke, and as lately resigning, after an 
able ministry of several years, Rev. A. L. Wilkinson, 
D. D. Racine enrolls upon its list of early pastors, 
following Rev. Spencer Carr, with whom the church 
began, Silas Tucker, 1845-48 ; William Rollinson, 
1849-50. Later it had the ministry of Rev. O. O. 
Stearns, later still of Rev. W. B. Cullis, and as we 
write that of Rev. David Spencer, D. d., recently 
closed. 

Much of the church planting in Wisconsin has 
called for notice in other connections. Mr. Delany 
has noted the first beginnings of church organization 
at Janesville, with mention of the brilliant pastorates 
of E. J. Goodspeed and Galusha Anderson. Rev. 
M. G. Hodge, d. d., the pastor as we write, has been 
twice in service there. The first of these terms of 
service began Feb. 1, 1865, and closed Sept. ], 1871. 
His present pastorate, which has now lasted thirteen 
years, began May 1, 1881. In 1867-68, under his 
first pastorate, a fine house of worship, the best in the 
State, was built, with a seating capacity of one thou- 
sand. On Jan. 13, 1885, in the third year after the 
second pastorate began, this house was burned. The 



ON THE GENERAL FIELD 183 

church at once began to rebuild, and in August, 1885, 
dedicated its present beautiful house free of debt. 
The church in 1894 had a membership of three 
hundred and seventy. The ministry of Dr. Hodge 
had its earliest beginning in Vermont, his ordination 
occurring at Charleston, in that State, in 1843. Pas- 
torates followed, as the years went by, at Colchester 
and Hinesburg, Vt. ; Stillwater and Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 
Kalamazoo, Mich. ; Beaver Dam, Janesville, and Mil- 
waukee, Wis. No man in the American Baptist 
ministry has more commanded the respect of his 
brethren, the warm attachment of the churches served, 
or has been more cheerfully trusted and followed as a 
leader within the immediate sphere of his service on 
special fields. Pastors in later years, besides Dr. 
Hodge, serving at Janesville, have been O. J. Dear- 
born, W. H. Douglass, F. W. Bakeman, J. P. Bates, 
W. S. Eoberts, F. L. Chapell. 

A record like this which we make in the present 
chapter is necessarily imperfect. Something to a like 
purpose, though more in the nature of a general sum- 
mary, may come in order later in this history. The 
amount of detail here attempted has had for its pur- 
pose the giving of some indication of the manner in 
which the field in these great States has been taken 
and occupied during the century and more since, on 
the banks of the Ohio, Baptists began to have a name 
and a place. 



CHAPTER IX 

HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 

SO much as appears in a former chapter it has 
seemed necessary to say of a phase in our de- 
nominational history which antedates the missionary 
activity of more recent times. Interest in missions, 
variously organized at home and abroad, is so much 
a matter of course now that it might seem no violent 
inference that it had always been so ; nor is it easy 
now to quite get the point of view of those who once 
were so vigorous in their opposition. Besides, the 
anti-mission attitude was clearly one aspect of doc- 
trinal history among Baptists, grounding itself, as 
we have seen, in extreme views upon matters of 
faith fundamental, and in their general statement 
accepted by us all, yet susceptible of modifications 
in either direction which become divisive in their 
result. 

The missionary spirit, however, as has abundantly 
appeared in this, record of early times, was active 
among those who led the way in the occupancy of the 
Western field. ~Very naturally, its first direction was 
toward those Indian tribes then still found in their 
old localities, whose condition made such a strong 
appeal to Christian sympathy and sense of obligation. 
184 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 185 

We have seen that Dr. J. M. Peck's original desire 
was to become a missionary to the Indians. Other 
claims interfered, and turned his thought and his 
main interest in other directions ; vet what is written 
of him shows how difficult it must have been for 
earnest Christian men to look without deep con- 
cern upon the condition of those original occupants 
of a soil soon to be claimed in the interest of civili- 
zation, for whom even the light of nature was but 
darkness. 

Of Isaac McCoy, in this connection, we have 
already spoken, with some account also of his earlier 
life, and the beginning of his ministry. It was in 
1818, that Mr. McCoy received an appointment from 
the Baptist Triennial Convention as a missionary to 
the Indians. The Indian hostilities which accom- 
panied the war of 1812 with Great Britain had been 
quieted, and access to the tribes had now become 
comparatively easy. Mr. McCoy began his labors 
among them in a mission upon Raccoon Creek, in 
Indiana, in the very heart of the wilderness. After 
two years he removed to Fort Wayne, and there, in 
1821, organized a small church " consisting," it is 
said, " of eight missionaries, one colored man, and two 
converted half-breed Indian women." Believing that 
better access to the tribes could be found farther west, 
he removed in the autumn of 1821 to a point on the 
St. Joseph River, near the site of the present city of 
Niles, in Michigan. This station, among the Potta- 
watomie tribe of Indians, was named by him the 



186 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Carey Mission, as another among the Ottawas farther 
north was named the Thomas Mission, after another, 
Dr. John Thomas, of those by whom Baptist missions 
on the other side of the world had been originated. 

In his work among the Indians, Mr. McCoy expe- 
rienced much embarrassment and hindrance through 
their contact with people in the white settlements. 
It was partly, no doubt, in consequence of this that 
he interested himself so actively in securing from 
Congress its first appropriation of public lands as an 
Indian Reservation. To such a Reservation, in what 
is now the State of Kansas, he removed in 1829, and 
here continued his self-denying labor until 1842, 
when, having been chosen corresponding secretary 
of the Indian Mission Association, a new organiza- 
tion, having its headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky, 
he removed to that city, and there had his home until 
his death in 1846, consequent upon severe exposure 
in returning from a preaching engagement at Jeffer- 
sonville, Indiana. 

Something has already been said of Mr. McCoy's 
marked characteristics. It should be remembered of 
him that he was much more than simply a missionary. 
While earnest and devoted in the more direct labor 
as such, his thoughts and sympathies were occupied 
with large views and plans as to the general condition 
of Indian tribes in the West. He also wrote much 
upon the subject, one volume, an octavo of some six 
hundred pages, being completed and published by 
him not long before his death. Considerable time 



home a:nd foreign missions 187 

was spent by him at Washington, using his influence 
with members of Congress to secure the appropriation 
of public lands before mentioned, and for other pur- 
poses connected with the general welfare of the tribes. 
Mr. Joseph Chambers says i 1 

That which more than anything else must form the endur- 
ing memorial of Mr. McCoy, is what he did and suffered for 
the red man. He labored for him during a large part of his 
ministry with an intensity that nothing could abate ; and he 
has left a mark on the destiny of that unfortunate people 
which time cannot efface. Well do I remember going by 
request to his house, to join with him in prayer just before 
his removal into the Indian Territory. A few years before 
we had both been defending ourselves and our families with 
our rifles against the invasion of the Indians, and now he was 
going to plant himself down among them with his wife and 
seven small children, in the hope of becoming the instrument 
of their salvation. 

It is proper to say that owing to his active concern 
in general measures for the benefit of the Indians, 
Mr. McCoy was necessarily often turned aside from 
more direct missionary work, with frequent absence 
from the stations occupied by him. Out of this grew 
some apparent occasion of criticism, with official 
inquiry by the Board of the Triennial Convention 
under whose appointment he labored in the earlier 
years of his service. Dr. Spencer H. Cone, of New 
York, an influential member of that Board, much 
befriended him, justifying his course, and securing in 
the result complete vindication. 
*In Sprague's " Annuls of the American Baptist Pulpit," p. 645. 



188 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

An indirect fruit of the missionary labors of Mr. 
McCoy while at the Carey Mission on the St. Joseph 
River, may have been the Brothertown Indian Bap- 
tist Church, which came in a body into the territory 
of Wisconsin in 1828 ; though perhaps more directly 
a fruit of the mission later at Grand Rapids. This 
was really the first Baptist church in what is now the 
State of Wisconsin. Its location, Brothertown, was 
at Calum.et, on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago. 
An Indian pastor came with the little band, bearing 
the name of Dick, spoken of as "a most excellent 
man and preacher, and a decided Calvinist." His 
wife had been educated in the family of Prof. Daniel 
Hascall, of Hamilton Literary and Theological In- 
stitute. After Mr. Dick's death the church had no 
pastor, and though its meetings, especially its cove- 
nant meetings, were maintained until 1841, it finally 
became extinct. 

Concerning work among the Indians in Michigan 
a further record remains. " Some successful work," 
says Dr. Samuel Haskell, 1 " was done in schools, a 
few conversions at the Carey Mission are mentioned, 
and six young Indians were sent to Hamilton and 
two to Vermont for education." No church organiza- 
tion at the Carey Mission evidently is reported. A 
mission distinct from that of Mr. McCoy appears to 
have been established at Grand Rapids. Here more 
results of labors appeared. "In the spring of 1832 
many improvements had been made, a house of wor- 
1 "Fifty Years of Michigan Baptist History." 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 189 

ship erected, whose ' church-going bell ? was the first 
one with a Baptist tongue in Michigan^ and the chief, 
Noon-day, with a number of his people were asking 
baptism." As Eev. Leonard Slater, the missionary 
at that point, was a licentiate, Rev. Elkanah Corn- 
stock, at Pontiac, was sent for to administer the ordi- 
nance. He was accompanied by Rev. John Booth, 
another devoted Baptist pioneer. " They went by 
Jackson and Marshall, at each of which there were 
two log dwellings and beyond these places there were 
no roads, bridges, or inhabitants, except a Baptist 
family near Battle Creek, and a few families on Gull 
Prairie. From this point and back to their homes by 
the Shiawassee trail, they traversed an unbroken 
forest, swimming their horses through the Grand 
River several times, and kindling a fire and lying 
down wherever night overtook them." Their visit to 
the mission at Grand Rapids appears to have resulted 
in the organization of an Indian Baptist church, 
with twenty-four members. Through the influence 
of Chief Noon-day a temperance society among these 
Indians was organized, with the following pledge : 
" We say we will stop using this whisky • we will not 
suifer it to come into our houses : we, who have set 
our names to this, will meet in a house to remember 
and talk of what we have said to God. We will not 
lie to God." " The names of forty Indians," says 
Dr. Haskell, " were written under this pledge, and 
each of them shook the pen opposite to his name, thus 
recognizing the signature as his own." 



190 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Mr. Slater appears to have been, in his zeal as a 
missionary among the Indians, like-minded with 
Isaac McCoy. When, in 1836, the Indians in Mich- 
igan were removed by order of the government, he 
obtained permission for those whom he had gathered in 
the church at Grand Rapids to remain in the State. 
A settlement was formed near Kalamazoo, and a 
church and school there maintained for some fifteen 
years. The settlement, however, declined and the 
station was ultimately abandoned, Mr. Slater was 
active also in labors among the colored people of 
Kalamazoo. In the time of the civil war he contracted 
a disease while laboring in army hospitals in the South, 
and there ended his useful career. " Bury me," were 
his last words, " by the Kalamazoo, on the spot where 
I spread my tent and slept by the Indian Trading 
Post on the first night of my coming to the station ; 
and let the dust of my buried wife be brought and 
laid by my side." 

Other missions were established in other parts of 
Michigan ; one by Rev. Abel Bingham at Sault Ste. 
Marie, in 1828, and a church of six members organ- 
ized in 1830, increasing to fifty by the year 1833, 
with several " soldier members " included. The dis- 
appearance of the Indian tribes through various causes, 
more especially their removal by government to the 
farther West, lias left all this, however, as simply a 
passing record, though a deeply interesting one, in 
the annals of Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin Bap- 
tists. 






HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 191 

As we turn now to consider the subject of co-opera- 
tion by Western Baptists in home and foreign missions 
upon a larger scale, we have to notice, first of all, the 

manner in which active en^agedness in these direc- 
ts o 

tions, as well as in mission work more local in char- 
acter, was weakened and hindered by divisions of the 
same kind as were having; a like effect both in the 
East and the South. We have already made mention 
of the causes of such division, but must here notice 
them more in detail. 

It was not so much conflict of opinion as to the 
institution of slavery itself, which had the effect 
spoken of. Among Northern and Western Baptists 
the general judgment as to the character of that insti- 
tution and the necessity for its abolition was much 
the same for all ; the points of difference, radical in 
their nature in spite of any fundamental agreement as 
to the general view, concerned methods of dealing 
with the evil, and the question of complicity with it 
through association with slaveholders in home and 
foreign missions and in other ways. The South, in 
these particulars, was quite as much at issue with the 
North as the North with itself in its own domestic 
differences, the result being a complication the effect 
of which was felt in all departments of missionary 
activity. 

Into details more than very general of this impor- 
tant passage in the history of American Baptist mis- 
sions we cannot enter. That will perhaps be more 
appropriate for notice in some other volume of the 



192 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

series to which our own belongs. Besides the ques- 
tion already noticed, that of complicity with what 
was regarded as the sin of slaveholding, there was 
another having respect to the proper constitution of a 
missionary society. The third article in the constitu- 
tion of the American Baptist Missionary Union, 
organized at Boston in 1845, was as follows : "This 
Union shall be composed of life-members. All the 
members of the Baptist General (Triennial) Con- 
vention who may be present at the adoption of this 
constitution, shall be members for life of the Union. 
Other persons may be constituted life- members by the 
payment at one time of not less than one hundred 
dollars." 

The points of fundamental difference between the 
supporters of the Missionary Union and those of the 
American Baptist Free Mission Society, organized in 
the Tremont Chapel, Boston, in May, 1843, were 
these two, that of co-operation with slaveholders in 
the prosecution of missions, at home or abroad, and 
the recognition of a principle of representation in the 
constitution of a missionary society ; it being claimed 
on the one hand that organization upon a basis of life- 
membership only, implied an exclusion of the princi- 
ple of representation, while upon the other it was 
argued that the only safe recognition of such a princi- 
ple in the constitution of a missionary society is the 
qualified one seen in a life- membership constituency. 
It is proper to add here, that at a later time, when 
this whole controversy had become a thing of the 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 193 

past, the constitution of the Missionary Union was so 
changed as to admit of representation in the form of 
delegates from churches, and in other ways. 

This brief mention of matters in debate at the date 
here in view, is made necessary by the fact that the 
Free Mission agitation was so much a factor in this 
history during many years on the field of our present 
survey, and the fact also that the issues above noted 
were debated in the West no less actively than in the 
East. The Western center of the Free Mission move- 
ment, for a considerable time at least, was Elgin, Illi- 
nois, where the Western organ of its promoters, " The 
Western Christian," was published under the edi- 
torship of Rev. Warham Walker. Mr. Walker was 
a pastor in Homer, New York, when the questions 
indicated above began to attract attention. His views 
he gave to the public in the form of a paper, " The 
Advocate," which was announced as intended for con- 
tinued publication should that be warranted, but 
which reached only a second number, the opening for 
a like enterprise in the West calling him thither. 
Mr. Walker argued the questions referred to, from his 
own point of view, with decided ability, and with a 
moderation of tone, considering the degree of agi- 
tation all around him, which lent much force to his 
advocacy. " The Western Christian," founded in 1845, 
by a joint stock company, in which Rev. A. J. Joslyn, 
Rev. J. E. Ambrose, and Rev. Spencer Carr of 
Racine, shared, was sustained during some six years, 
and gained a considerable circulation both in the 

N 



194 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

West and in the East. The Free Mission sentiment 
on the field of its circulation grew in intensity, and 
mixed itself with almost all forms of organization for 
Christian work. In 1846 the Free Mission Conven- 
tion in Wisconsin was organized at Spring Prairie, 
in that State. The influence of the agitation was felt 
in each of the other States, mainly through efforts 
made in meetings of local Associations and in State 
Conventions to secure recognition of principles repre- 
sentative of the Free Mission position, as regards fel- 
lowship with slaveholders, and missionary policy in 
general. 

The division extended to home missions as well as 
foreign missions. The withdrawal of Southern Bap- 
tists from co-operation with those of the North, 
involved separation in home missions, and also 
brought into that organization dividing questions of a 
similar character. As a result, those identified with 
the Free Mission movement stood aloof here also. 

It is no part of our purpose in recalling these chap- 
ters in missionary history to revive issues long buried, 
as far as any discussion of them upon their merits is 
concerned. These discussions, however, enter so 
largely into the earlier history of Western Baptists, 
in their relation to Christian enterprise upon a wide 
scale, that it was impossible to pass them by. Other 
grounds of difference appeared later in connection 
with the work of Bible distribution. We cannot stop 
to give any detailed account of the rising into promi- 
nence of the question of Bible revision, the organiza- 



HOME AND FOKEIGN MISSIONS 195 

tion of the American Bible Union in 1850, and the 
sharp controversy between its supporters and those 
of the American and Foreign Bible Society upon 
the question of revision. Western men entered into 
these discussions with much zeal, the work of revi- 
sion under the auspices of the new society appealing 
strongly to the pronounced Baptist convictions and 
sentiment, always quite characteristic of Western 
churches and their ministry. In the end, as is well 
known, the general principle advocated by the Ameri- 
can Bible Union prevailed, finding emphatic endorse- 
ment in the Revised version by British and Ameri- 
can scholars published in 1880, and in the action of 
the Saratoga Baptist Bible Convention in 1883. 

It is, as is often remarked, chiefly in times of agi- 
tation and disturbance that material for history is 
supplied. The period whose more stirring events 
have occupied us in foregoing pages, has been followed 
by a period of quiet and orderly progress under 
methods commanding united support, and with results 
such as union of counsel and endeavor is wont to 
bring. The issue of the war between the States put 
an end to slavery and to those causes of division 
growing out of it, whose effects were felt in so many 
ways. These and other questions in debate having 
left the field, there was room and opportunity for 
devising better methods of procedure in that work of 
missions which .now came to the front as in so many 
ways having superior claims. 

To the American Baptist Home Mission Society 



196 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Western Baptists have been ever glad to confess a 
large indebtedness. Those upon the field, in contact 
with its difficulties and sensible of limitation in 
resources, necessarily crippling and discouraging, 
have not failed to recognize the relief and the inspira- 
tion supplied in the consciousness of active sympathy 
on the part of their brethren in the older States. 
The society in its own operations has proceeded upon 
the wise principle of stimulating, as well as aiding 
endeavor. Self-help, it has been realized, is after all 
the best kind of help. Thus the society, in the aid 
it has given, has rendered a double service. Many a 
struggling church has been by its means lifted into 
comparative independence, and yet in the process of 
such relief has found its self-respect encouraged and 
its own spirit of enterprise stimulated. 

Examples of the service rendered in the West by 
the Home Mission Society may be found simply in 
an enumeration of central points first occupied either 
through its means or by its aid. Churches now in 
large cities and towns, and which for more than a 
generation, perhaps even half a century, have found 
no occasion to ask for aid in any quarter, save from 
above, may not be in the habit of recalling what was 
true of them in the time of their beginning, and 
when the very place of their location was similar to 
that which some crude town upon the frontier now is. 
The first two pastors in Chicago, A. B. Freeman and 
Isaac T. Hinton, were aided in their support from 
Home Mission funds ; the now powerful and prosper- 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 197 

ous First Church being in a true sense the child of the 
society. When Rev. J. L. Richmond, in 1833, came 
to Cleveland, Ohio, he came with the promise of aid 
from the same source. Both T. R. Cressy and D. B. 
Cheney were aided by the society in laying founda- 
tions at Columbus, in the same State. The First 
Church, Cincinnati, sustained its pastor, Daniel 
Shephardson, in the first year of service, 1847-48, 
with like aid. At Indianapolis, as bearing the com- 
mission of the society, we find Ezra Fisher, T. R. 
Cressy, Sidney Dyer, at dates varying from 1832 to 
1853. In Detroit, a like record appears of such early 
pastors as Robert Turnbull, 1834-36 ; Oliver C. 
Comstock, 1838-40; Andrew Ten-Brook, 1841-44; 
James Inglis, 1844-45 ; Samuel H. Davis, 1847-48. 
For Kalamazoo, are the names of Edward Anderson 
and Samuel Haskell. For Milwaukee, on this list, 
are the names of Richard Griffin, 1836-40; Peter 
Conrad, 1842-43 ; Lewis Raymond, 1846-48 ; T. S. 
Griffith, 1850-53. In Illinois, at Springfield, we 
find J. Merriam, 1837-39 ; Ambler Edson,! 844-45 ; 
Gilbert S. Bailey, 1846-49. As on the field includ- 
ing Alton and Carrollton, Alvin Bailey, 1833-34. 
In Bloomington, I. D. Newell, 1838-40; Lyman 
Whitney, 1844-46; L. L. Lansing, 1871-72* In 
Peoria, A. Riddler, 1837-3S ; H. G. Weston, 1846- 
47 ; the church then becoming self-supporting, J. 
Edminster, planting a new church 1854-57 ; I. S. 
Mahan (Adams Street Church), 1857-58. In Quincy, 
Ezra Fisher, 1836-40; Edwin C. Brown, 1840-44. 



198 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

These may be viewed as representative names and 
places. In the Jubilee Volume of the society, pub- 
lished in 1883, we find two hundred and eighty-two 
places named in Illinois, including nearly all those 
points where the chief cities now stand, as aided by 
the society in the first founding of churches, or in 
enterprises of a later date. The number to a like 
effect in Indiana, is one hundred and fifty-five ; in 
Michigan, one hundred and eighty-four ; in Ohio, 
eighty-five ; in Wisconsin, two hundred and ten. In 
these States, of places not yet named, are, in Michigan, 
Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Lansing, Niles 
— where we find Eber Crane in 1834-35 — Ypsilanti, 
and others which we omit to name lest our list grow 
too large. In Ohio, Marietta, Massillon, Springfield, 
Toledo. In Wisconsin, Geneva, P. Conrad, in 1843- 
44 ; Joel W. Fish, 1846-51 ; Caleb Blood, 1852-53 ; 
Janesville, Kenosha, Madison, H. W. Read, 1847- 
49 ; Racine, Silas Tucker, 1845-48. In Indiana, 
Crawfordsville, Fort Wayne, Franklin, Huntington, 
LaPorte, Peru, Terre Haute, Joseph A. Dixon, 1846- 
50, Valparaiso, Vincennes. 

This enumeration may serve a double purpose: 
while it records names of men, some of them unmen- 
tioned before, who have shared in the laying of 
foundations in these States, it shows how wise and 
how early were the selections made by the society 
of fields to be occupied. In process of time a new 
principle of policy came into adoption in the relation 
of the society to the several State organizations. As 



HOME AND FOKEIGN MISSIONS 199 

these latter took up with more of purpose and energy 
the woik of State missions, the inconvenience of a 
double occupancy began to be felt, and in States 
where the aid of the society was still needed, arrange- 
ments were entered into for associated methods. The 
society pledged to the State, through the Board of the 
State society, a definite sum, conditioned upon the 
raising and expenditure upon the field of another 
specific amount, It was thus found practicable to 
prosecute work upon the field under State auspices, 
and at the same time have at disposal a supplemen- 
tary fund that should make practicable a material 
enlargement of operations, the Church Edifice Fund 
of the society being a source of aid often invaluable. 
This arrangement was entered into especially in Wis- 
consin, and in States beyond the Mississippi, but it 
was for a while found useful also in Illinois ; while 
in the latter State, and especially in Chicago, co-oper- 
ation of the society continued to be had, to most 
excellent purpose, with particular reference to the for- 
eign population. This co-operative method, as far as 
the States just named are concerned, dates, for Illinois, 
from 1879, and for Wisconsin, 1880, the then secre- 
tary, Rev. H. L. Morehouse, d. d., being its active 
promoter in these, and in States west of the river. 

An important measure of the society was the 
appointment of district secretaries. The first such 
appointments on the field of our present survey, were 
Rev. O. B. Stone, for Ohio and Michigan, in 1864; 
Rev. J. W. Osborn, for Ohio and West Virginia, 



200 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

in 1868 ; and Rev. S. B. Page, d. d., for the same 
field in 1870-75. The field of Dr. Page, in 1875, 
was made to include Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, 
Rev. James Cooper, d. d., succeeding him in 1880. 
In 1877 Rev. William M. Haigh was appointed for 
the States of Illinois and Wisconsin, several States 
west of the river, such as Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, 
Kansas, and Dakota being later included. Rev. E. 
H. E. Jameson, d. d., for Michigan, and Ohio, and 
Rev. Dwight Spencer, for Indiana, are later appoint- 
ments. Mr. Spencer had been long in home mission 
superintendence, especially in the farther West, with 
distinguished service in Utah, and other parts of the 
Rocky Mountain region. 

Dr. Page had filled important pastorates in Ohio, 
such as Massillon, Wooster, Norwalk, the Third and the 
Second (now Euclid Avenue) Churches in Cleveland. 
His efficiency in agency service was shown in 1866, 
by his success in securing an endowment of one hun- 
dred thousand dollars for Denison University. As 
district secretary of the Home Mission Society he 
served nearly twelve years, with marked efficiency. 
Rev. James Cooper, D. d., although born in Boston, 
in 1826, was first a member of the Ninth Street 
Church, Cincinnati, being baptized into its fellowship 
in 1840. Graduating at Denison in 1850, he spent 
three years at Newton, being ordained in Cincinnati, 
after some fifteen months of mission service in that 
city. At the time of his call to the district secretary- 
ship he was pastor at Flint, Mich., previous pastor- 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 201 

ates having been at Madison, and Waukesha, Wis., 
Melrose, Mass., West Philadelphia, and in Rondout, 
N. Y. His service as district secretary began in 
1880, closing at his death in 1886. 

Rev. O. B. Stone, d. d., born in Homer, N. Y., in 
1823, was ordained at Xenia, Ohio, in 1852. After 
two years' service at Xenia, he went under appoint- 
ment of the Home Mission Society to California, and 
was pastor at San Jos6, and Nevada City. Subse- 
quent pastorates were at Lafayette, Ind., and Rock- 
ford, Marengo, and Bloomington, 111. His service 
as district secretary covered only three years, from 
1864. Hi3 health failed while he was yet in the 
meridian of life, and his last years were a period of 
long-continued suffering. He was a graduate of 
Madison University, and of Rochester Theological 
Seminary. His known interest in education led to 
his appointment upon such Boards of direction as 
those of Shurtleff College, and of the University and 
Seminary at Chicago. 

Rev. William M. Haigh, D. D., was a native of 
England, born in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1829. Fol- 
lowing his father, Deacon Daniel Haigh, long remem- 
bered in Northern Illinois as a pillar in the churches, 
he came to this country in 1852, the family home 
being made near Pavilion, some sixty miles west of 
Chicago. By the church at Pavilion the son was 
licensed to preach in 1852, and in 1853 he was 
ordained as its pastor. After several years of ser- 
vice in leading pastorates in the State, service as chap- 



202 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

lain in the army in 1862-64, and one year in an 
agency for the Baptist Union for Theological Educa- 
tion at Chicago, he was, in 1877, at the close of his 
pastorate at Galesburg, 111., called into the service of 
the Home Mission Society as district secretary. This 
field, as intimated above, grew into a very extended 
one, on both sides of the great river. This, however, 
he commanded with remarkable activity, and with 
zeal that never tired, a patience that seemed exhaust- 
less, and executive skill which made his co-operation 
in difficult cases of missionary administration of 
signal benefit to the cause, he held the position 
assigned him until the autumn of 1893, when he 
accepted the appointment from the society of general 
superintendent of home missions in the States of 
Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and the 
Dakotas. 

This last appointment was in accordance with an 
enlargement of policy by the Home Mission Society, 
in view of the demand for a general supervision of 
the Western field, covering the vast extent from the 
lakes to the Pacific, such as the details of service 
required of the district secretaries made impracticable. 
Dr. T. J. Morgan having succeeded Dr. H. L. More- 
house in the secretaryship of the society, and Dr. 
Morehouse being made field secretary, this office of 
general superintendent was created as co-operative, 
the field under this designation being divided between 
Dr. Haigh and Dr. H. C. Woods. The new meas- 
ure was intended to provide for needed supervision in 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 203 

such a way as to secure prompt and efficien J occupa- 
tion in every part of the broad area where material 
development was so rapid, with unresting home mis- 
sion activity called for in all directions. 

In the department of foreign missions Western 
work was, of course, in a good degree limited to 
measures for cultivating a missionary spirit in the 
churches, and securing co-operation in the raising of 
funds for the missions. Active opposition to this, as 
to other forms of organized Christian enterprise, may 
be said to have practically ceased after the lapse of 
not much more than a generation from the date of 
denominational beginnings in the West. What those 
charged with the work of promoting interest in for- 
eign missions iiad chiefly to encounter was, upon the 
one hand, apathy as respects an interest so remote and 
preoccupation with pressing needs of the home field. 
The agency originally employed with this view de- 
veloped in time into an organization of the work 
similar to that used by the Home Mission Society. 
The agency became a secretaryship with local admin- 
istrative functions which made the office a more re- 
sponsible one, but also enlarged the scope of its use- 
fulness. Dividing questions happily ceased to ex- 
ist after the war, so that in the West as in the East, 
the denomination was thenceforth, in this important 
service, practically a unit. 

Growth in foreign mission interest was an impor- 
tant feature of Western Baptist history. While as 
the States grew in population and wealth increased 



204 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

it was most necessary that the West should share 
with the East in providing means to carry on the 
work abroad, time was to show what precious gifts 
in personal service were to be supplied from this field. 
The conditions of Western life were helpful in de- 
veloping the character and qualifications suited to 
meet demands of the work abroad. Indeed, it is 
permitted Western churches to know that among those 
most efficient in the foreign field have been the young 
men and young women in whose early Christian 
training they have shared, and who have gone as 
their representatives to all parts of the world where 
American Baptists are carrying on the work which 
Carey and Judson began. In all revivals of mis- 
sionary interest the West has liberally shared. Con- 
tributions from these States have steadily grown in 
amount. Nor is it likely that the fact can be other- 
wise while it is the privilege of Western Baptists to 
enjoy such a representation as that of Dr. Clough of 
Iowa, in the field abroad, and that of Dr. Mabie, a 
native of Illinois, in the administration at home. 

Among those earliest in service as representing the 
interest of foreign missions in these States was Dr. 
Jirah D. Cole. Previous to his final removal to the 
West, he had been similarly engaged in association 
with Rev. Alfred Bennett, having accepted an ap- 
pointment for foreign missions in 1839, spending his 
first year of such service in New York and his second 
year in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. In the 
year 1841 he returned to the pastorate, but in 1850 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 205 

accepted an appointment by the Missionary Union as 
agent for the Northwest. His seven aud a half years 
of service were years of encounter with many diffi- 
culties, of extended travel when facilities for such 
travel were by no means such as could be had later, 
but with good results in the cultivation of a mission- 
ary spirit among the churches. 

Three of those who, following Dr. Cole, have been 
engaged in a like service, had themselves had expe- 
rience in the work abroad, and brought to their ad- 
vocacy of the cause at home that same earnest spirit 
of personal consecration which, had prompted their 
original choice of field. Dr. S. M. Osgood died at 
Chicago in 1875. He had been district secretary in 
the West for the Missionary Union since 1860, a 
period of fifteen years, spent in a service at the 
time even more taxing to self-denial and physical 
strength than it is now, and with a zeal for the cause 
which he carried with him as a veritable contagion. 
He began active life as a printer, and was connected 
for some time with the office of " The Baptist Reg- 
ister," in Utica, N. Y. He was, while a resident in 
that city, a member of the Broad Street Baptist 
Church, but had been baptized when only nine years 
of age by his father, Rev. Emory Osgood. In 1834 
he was appointed missionary printer at Moulmein, 
Burma, his companions on the voyage over being 
Jonathan Wade, Grover S. Comstock, William Dean, 
and Miss Ann Gardner. Returning to this country 
in 1863, he served seven years as agent of the Mis- 



206 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

sionary Union in Western New York, then in 1853 
was transferred to a like agency in New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, and in the District of Columbia, 
coming in 1860 to the West on a like mission. A 
(; man greatly beloved," his personal influence, no 
less than his powerful advocacy of the cause he loved, 
was felt in all the churches as a benediction and an 
inspiration. 

Associated with Dr. Osgood in this agency from 
1866 to 1875 was Rev. C. F. Tolman, who, upon the 
death of Dr. Osgood, and for many years after, had 
sole charge of the field which during nine years they 
had occupied jointly; the agency becoming in due 
time a district secretaryship. Dr. Tolman, like his 
associate and predecessor, had had experience in for- 
eign service. Born at Meridian, N. Y., in 1832, he 
had come with his father, Rev. J. F. Tolman, of 
whom mention has before been made, to Illinois, re- 
ceiving his education at ShurtlefT College and at 
Madison (now Colgate) University. In November, 
1858, with his wife, Mrs. Mary R. Tolman, a daugh- 
ter of Dr. Bronson, of the Assam mission, he sailed 
for that part of India under appointment of the 
Missionary Union. Acquiring the language with re- 
markable facility, he was able, before failure of 
health compelled a return to this country, to use the 
Assamese language freely in preaching and to reduce 
to writing the language of the Mikirs, to which tribe 
he had been especially assigned, and to prepare a 
vocabulary and catechism. Compelled by the con- 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 207 

viction that his constitution would not bear the effects 
of an Eastern climate, he returned home, and after a 
pastorate in Lawrence, Mass., and Fort Madison, la., 
became associated with Dr. Osgood in the foreign 
mission agency, and upon the death of Dr. Osgood, 
district secretary for Illinois, Wisconsin, and other 
Northwestern States, his official journeys frequently 
taking him far over to the Pacific itself. Growth in 
missionary interest in these States, with enlargement 
of contributions, were greatly promoted under his 
active, judicious, and zealous labors. 

The third of those engaged in foreign service pre- 
vious to engagement in work at home in the same 
goneral interest, is Rev. Thomas Allen. We have 
once more an instance in his case of the manner in 
which home missions and foreign missions in the per- 
son of those devoted in behalf of each may join hands. 
Thomas Allen, while yet a boy, was baptized by Rev. 
Thomas Powell, missionary and agent of the Home 
Mission Society, in the Big Vermillion River, at 
Vermillionville, 111. This occurred in 1838. His 
education, begun at the academy conducted for a 
while at Granville, 111., by Rev. Ezra Fisher, another 
home missionary, was completed at Hamilton in 
1852, and in September of that year he sailed for 
Burma with his wife, whom, as Miss Minerva New- 
ton, of East Hamilton, he had married in July of 
that year. His station in Burma was Tavoy. Here 
the health of his wife failed and they were obliged 
to return home. Two years he served as agent for 



208 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

the Missionary Union, and then entering the pastor- 
ate was engaged at Groton and Milo, N, Y., remov- 
ing next to Chicago as pastor of what is now the 
Pilgrim Temple Church in that city, and later being 
settled at Benton Harbor, Mich. While at Benton 
Harbor he was appointed district secretary of the 
Missionary Union for the States of Ohio, Indiana, 
and West Virginia, Indiana being later assigned to 
another district. In this service he continued with 
extraordinary activity and abounding fruit from 1869 
to 1891, retiring then to make a home with his son, 
Dr. E. T. Allen, in Omaha, Neb. His successor 
upon the field was Rev. T. G. Field, transferred to it 
from that in the Northwest, which included Minne- 
sota and the Dakotas. 

Our personal record here must still make mention 
of Dr. S. M. Stimson, during so many years, from 
1873 onward, district secretary of the Missionary 
Union in Michigan, Indiana, and Southern Illinois. 
Dr. Stimson was a native of Massachusetts, born in 
Winchendon, Worcester County, in 1815. Four 
years after, his parents removed to Western New 
York, where, in 1831, he became connected, first, 
with a Free Will Baptist church, but soon changed 
his membership to a regular Baptist church at Pen- 
dleton. His preparation for the ministry he received 
in good schools in that part of the State where he had 
his home, being ordained in the Shelby Church in 
1843. After pastorates of several churches in New 
York and Massachusetts, he came from Batavia, N. Y., 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 209 

where he had been pastor eleven years, to Terre 
Haute, Ind., where his term of service covered eight 
years. Returning from a tour in Europe he was ap- 
pointed, in 1873, to the district secretaryship above 
mentioned, being a man made most welcome in every 
part of his field on account of genial social qualities, 
and in public address powerful and persuasive. 

What we write of these five men sets forth a form 
of service in the States covered by our history of the 
highest importance to the cause of foreign missions. 
It was more than a mere agency. Administrative in 
character, its result was seen in organization of the 
work of collecting funds, and in combining and di- 
recting those forces in the several churches, which 
are the stable and reliable dependence for means to 
carry the gospel "into all the world." 

We have now to speak of a department of service 
in foreign missions significant and representative in a 
remarkable way. The place of woman in the activi- 
ties of this later age has been a question far wider in 
scope than any theory as to her " rights" in connec- 
tion with secular human affairs. Her sphere, what- 
ever may be true of it in other respects, has certainly 
been comprehensive of that which most effectively 
gives expression to those kindly sympathies which 
ennoble human nature, and are evidently anticipative 
of forms of service made needful by human ignorance, 
sorrow, and sin. That in some good time the activi- 
ties of women would find opportunity and scope in 
connection with missions in foreign lands and in 

o 



210 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

home lands, might have been looked for from the 
very outset of missionary organization. 

In her admirable sketch of the first twenty years of 
history of the Woman's Baptist Society of the West, 1 
Mrs. Bacon, who has been its secretary and chief ex- 
ecutive officer almost from the beginning, writes thus 
in her opening sentences : 

It would be gratifying to denominational pride if this brief 
record of twenty years could justly claim a priority for the 
Baptist sisterhood as a general organized society for the up- 
lifting of women in heathen lands. But such distinction does 
not belong to us, All honor to Mrs. Mason and Mrs. Dore- 
mus, who led in organizing the "Women's Union Missionary 
Society, ' ' the mother of us all. All honor to the three denomi- 
national societies which were doing a successful work before 
us, and are now vieing with us in carrying the gospel to the 
women of the East. 

The proposal for an organization of women of the 
Baptist churches of America in this behalf was hailed 
by the Executive Committee of the Missionary Union 
as, in the language of Secretary Murdock, " the reali- 
zation of a hope long cherished. " The proposal for 
such organization, and the organization itself, were 
almost simultaneous in the East and in the West ; the 
Eastern society coming into existence a month earlier 
than the Western one, in the spring of 1871. The 
Western organization occurred May 9, 1871, in the 
First Baptist Church, Chicago. The meeting to or- 

1 "Twenty Years' History of the "Woman's Baptist Foreign 
Missionary Society of the West," by Mrs. A. M. Bacon, 1891. 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 211 

ganize, having been called to order by Dr. C. F. Tol- 
man, was addressed by Rev. Dr. Knowlton, from 
China, Mrs. Tolman, and Mrs. J. W. Barker, both of 
whom had been connected with the mission in Assam. 
Mrs. Robert Harris was the first president of the so- 
ciety as then organized ; Mrs. C. F. Tolman, corre- 
sponding secretary ; Mrs. A. M. Bacon, recording 
secretary ; Mrs. S. M. Osgood, treasurer. At the 
end of four years, Mrs. Tolman declining a re-elec- 
tion, Mrs. Bacon, who had been recording secretary 
for only a few months, and then became associate cor- 
responding secretary and corresponding editor of the 
" Helping Hand/' was now, in 1875, made full secre- 
tary, still (1895) retaining that office, after twenty 
years of devoted and efficient service. In 1872 Mrs. 
E. W. Brayman became the recording secretary ; and, 
three years later, Western Editor of " The Helping 
Hand " ; being still, at the end of twenty-two years, 
serving in these capacities with unabated zeal and 
efficiency. She was also, for twenty years, a member 
of the Publication Committee. In Mrs. Robert 
Harris the society found a president who, for eight 
years, presided on all occasions with eminent dignity 
and ability, in the general administration also, as a 
gracious and inspiring presence, stimulating and di- 
rective. Mrs. Harris was succeeded, after eight years, 
by Mrs. Robert, wife of Col. H. M. Robert, of Mil- 
waukee, who, after one year, gave place to Mrs. A. J. 
Howe, a daughter of Dr. S. M. Osgood, and wife of 
Prof. A. J. Howe, of the (Old) University of Chicago. 



212 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

In 1893 Mrs. Howe was, aftet* thirteen years, suc- 
ceeded in the presidency by Mrs. L. Everingham, for 
several years the first vice-president, Mrs. Howe, as 
an expression of appreciation for her most excellent 
service, being made honorary president. The office 
of treasurer has been successively filled by Mrs. S. M. 
Osgood, Mrs. C. R. Blackall, Mrs. F. A.* Smith, Miss 
Ella F. Haigh, afterward Mrs. Googins, and Miss 
Mary W. Ranney, daughter of Mr. Ranney, the mis- 
sionary printer at Moulmein, who was with Dr. Jud- 
son when he died. Miss C. M. Daniells, at one time 
State secretary in Michigan, and later missionary to 
China, was, upon her return home in 1888, made 
home corresponding secretary, followed by Mrs. S. C. 
White in 1890, Mrs. E. F. Sample in 1892," and Mrs. E. 
H. Griffith in 1894. The executive Board, charged 
with the business of the society during the year, con- 
sisted at first of thirteen, afterward of nineteen mem- 
bers. 

Miss A. L. Stevens, the first missionary of the 
society, compelled by failure of health after one year 
of service to return, was in 1883 given charge of the 
society's literature, with visitation of churches and 
correspondence with circles. Circles for ladies and 
bands for children are organized in churches, these 
serving as auxiliaries of the society, most helpful in 
the promotion of missionary knowledge and interest, 
and in the collection of funds. The literature of the 
society is for use mainly in the circles and bands. In 
process of time the amount of it grew to be very 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 213 

large in the form of " Leaflets/' "Studies," and other 
publications, "The Helping Hand," published in 
Boston, serving as organ for the Society of the West, 
as well as for that in the East, as did also " The 
King's Messengers to Heathen Lands," for the chil- 
dren. Of the literature, particular mention may be 
made of the " Studies in Baptist Missions," prepared 
by Mrs. J. A. Smith, of Morgan Park, and Miss 
Nellie O. Patrick, of Marengo, 111. These are eleven 
in number, giving information gathered and arranged 
with great care and skill, concerning the field and the 
work in all the various countries where missions were 
sustained by the American Baptist Missionary Union. 
These "Studies," published in Boston, were widely 
used in the Circles, both in the East and in the West. 
Mission Band Lessons were also prepared, adapted for 
the children. 

The organization of the work called for State vice- 
presidents, State secretaries, Associational secretaries, 
young ladies' secretaries, and band leaders for chil- 
dren in all the States included in the society's opera- 
tions, these being all the States from the Lakes to the 
Rocky Mountains, with Idaho, Washington, and 
British Columbia beyond. Missouri, New Mexico, 
and West Virginia were also included, an immense 
field, but with the work over its whole extent so or- 
ganized as to secure system and order in the adminis- 
tration and steady growth from year to year in mis- 
sionary interest and in contributions to the treasury. 
Among the State officers were many whose names are 



214 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

deserving of emphatic mention, for long-continued 
and most efficient service, notably Mrs. J. H. Ran- 
dall and Mrs. Dr. Hance, in Minnesota, Mrs. E. O. 
Campbell, in Iowa, Miss Craven, in Indiana, Mrs. 
Swegles, in Michigan, Mrs. L. L. Lansing, in Wis- 
consin, Mrs. M. Hay ward, in Nebraska, Miss N. O. 
Patrick, in Illinois. During the twenty- three years 
of the society's history to the date of our present 
record, seventy-two missionaries had been under ap- 
pointment. During the first twenty-two years the 
receipts and expenditures aggregated five hundred and 
forty-two thousand eight hundred and sixty-three 
dollars and thirty-three cent? ; the amount for the 
year 1892-93, standing at fifty-eight thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-seven dollars and sixty cents. 

It is a noble record, and the more deserving of 
mention, as it is considered how many of the gifts so 
made must have been small in amount, gifts of chil- 
dren and the poor, whose small donations may, never- 
theless, have been larger in the measure of the sacri- 
fice than those often may be which are reckoned by 
the tens, the hundreds, and the thousands. 

As we turn to consider the work of women in 
home missions, we find the Baptist women in Michi- 
gan leading the way for their sisters in the West in 
this important line of service. The Women's Bap- 
tist Home Mission Society of Michigan was organ- 
ized in the Lafayette Avenue Baptist Church, Detroit, 
April 23, 1873. The society was to serve auxiliary 
as well as other purposes, doing its work in connec- 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 215 

tion with the State Convention and with the Home 
Mission Society. Its operations, however, had in 
view missions for the freedmen and the Indians, along 
with aid given to churches within the State in sup- 
port of pastors. Among earliest missionaries of the 
society we find the names of Miss Carrie Dyer, at 
Nashville, and Miss Yaughan and Miss Olive Can- 
treni, at New Orleans. Later, we read of aid given 
to Miss Rounds, " a teacher in the Indian Territory." 
At the twelfth annual meeting, held at Adrian, the 
corresponding secretary in her report speaks of the 
sum of three thousand six hundred dollars as coming 
into the treasury during the year ; while at the thir- 
teenth meeting, held in 1886, the society is described 
as " having a part in the mission work in our State, in 
the South, in Utah and Dakota, in the Indian Ter- 
ritory, in Mexico, and in the work among the Chinese 
at Oakland, Cal." l 

In 1891 we find that at the end of its nineteenth 
year the society could report eight missionary pastors 
in the State aided during the year at an expenditure 
of one thousand eight hundred and thirty dollars ; 
and out of the State, teachers, missionaries, and dis- 
trict secretaries at Richmond — Miss Dyer, at Harts- 
horn Memorial College; for the Indians, Miss Min- 
nie Pratt, at the Indian University, Bacone, I. T. ; 
Mrs. Bradway, at the Chinese Mission, Oakland, 

1 From ""Woman's "Work and Organization in Michigan," a 
paper read by Mrs. L. B. Austin, of Detroit, at the Semi-centen- 
nial, 1886. 



216 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Cal. ; Madame Estrada, Bible reader, City of Mexico ; 
Rev. Frank Barnett, general missionary in Utah, and 
Rev. G. W. Huntley and Rev. T. M. Shanafelt, 
D. d., in Dakota — these appropriations out of the 
State amounting to one thousand three hundred and 
fifty dollars. 

In May, 1893, occurred at Denver the sixteenth 
annual meeting of the Women's Baptist Home Mis- 
sion Society, having its headquarters at Chicago. 
The proportions to which the work of the society 
had grown were just cause of congratulation for 
those who were familiar with the history of the 
society, and especially its early history. The report 
of the Executive Board, at that meeting, read by the 
secretary, Miss Mary G. Burdette, showed that in its 
various missions the society's field included twenty- 
nine different States and Territories in the United 
States, and two States in Mexico. Sixty-seven sta- 
tions had been occupied during the year, with ninety- 
two missionaries under appointment. The peoples 
among whom these missionaries had labored were 
Anglo- Africans, Chinese, Bohemians, Germans, Jews, 
Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Indians, Mexicans, with 
eight stations on the frontier and one among the 
Mormons. The receipts to the treasury during the 
year had been sixty-seven thousand and fifty-nine 
dollars and sixty cents. 

From a brief statement by Miss Burdette, giving 
a succinct history of the origin of this society, we 
take the following : 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 217 

The Women's Baptist Home Mission Society was organ- 
ized February 1, 1877, in the Michigan Avenue, now the Im- 
manuel Baptist Church, Chicago. Five years previous to 
this organization, at an annual meeting of the Women's For- 
eign Missionary Society of the West, a paper was read urging 
the great need of woman's work in home missions, and advo- 
cating its prosecution side by side with the foreign work. A 
year later the subject of such an organization was discussed 
by the women of Chicago, and though then regarded as not 
feasible, and therefore temporarily abandoned, it continued to 
have a place in their thoughts and convictions. These con- 
victions were strengthened year by year, both by the tender, 
earnest appeals of Miss J. P. Moore for help in the work she 
was doing single-handed in the homes of the freed-people of 
New Orleans, and by the ever-present consciousness that the 
millions of degraded homes in our own, as well as in heathen 
lands had a special claim on the sympathy and efforts of all 
Christian women. 

In the summer of 1876, Mrs. C. B. Blackall, then of Chi- 
cago, visited the Indian Territory with her husband, and 
there saw similar need for the labors of Christian women 
among those people. She talked to the Indian women about 
the improvement of their homes, the education of their 
children, the needs of Christian living, and found them ready, 
only waiting for instruction to enter upon Christian work. So 
grateful were they for the blessings of the gospel, that in 
their poverty they were anxious to send to the wild tribes be- 
yond, and Mrs. Blackall organized among them a Women's 
Home Mission Society. Soon after a most touching appeal 
was sent by these same Indian women, through Major Gr. W. 
Ingalls, to the women of Chicago, to aid them in their work, 
and also to send them Christian women to teach them how to 
live. 

The result, as indicated above, was the organiza- 
tion of the society on February 1,1877, with Mrs. J. 



218 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

N. Grouse, as president; Mrs. Carlos Swift, as secre- 
tary ; Mrs. R. R. Donnelley, as treasurer ; Mrs. James 
S. Dickerson, as president of the Executive Board. 
Miss Joanna P. Moore was the first missionary placed 
under appointment, her work being among the freed- 
people of the South, and her appointment bearing 
date May 1, 1877. Mrs. Grouse has continued presi- 
dent of the society till the present time. In 1883 
Mrs. Swift was compelled, by failure of health, to 
resign the secretaryship, and Miss M. G. Burdette 
was chosen to that office, which, at the date of our 
writing, she still holds. Mrs. Dickerson has been one 
of the most active and influential of those engaged in 
the work of the society. With what extraordinary 
devotion and what signal ability the affairs of the 
society have been conducted, is amply testified by the 
extent to which its operations have grown and the 
abounding good fruit of its work. 

A training school for the preparation of mission- 
aries for the peculiar and especial work to be done by 
them soon became an evident necessity. In 1881 
such a school was opened in a building secured for 
the purpose. Some years later money was raised for 
the erection of a building to be owned by the society, 
and the school now has permanent quarters, ample in 
accommodation and affording a pleasant home for 
pupils. Miss M. G. Burdette was preceptress from 
January, 1882, till September, 1888, at which time 
the burden of the office, in association with that of 
editor of the society's publications and corresponding 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 219 

secretary, becoming evidently too great, she resigned, 
and Mrs. C. D. Morris was chosen to succeed her. 
Under the administration of this capable and accom- 
plished lady the school continues to prosper. Instruc- 
tion in the school is given chiefly by pastors of the 
city and professors at the university, with laymen in 
certain departments and ladies in others. Instruction 
includes studies in German and Scandinavian. The 
enrollment of pupils in 1893 stood at fifty-six; the 
instructors in all departments at twenty-eight. Mis- 
sionaries for the foreign as well as for the home field 
have the benefit of the school. 



CHAPTER X 



STATE ORGANIZATION 



IN examining such documents and other historical 
records as survive, touching the pioneer times of 
the denomination in the States under consideration, 
it becomes a matter of much interest to note at how 
early a date the churches and their ministry began to 
plan for missionary service larger in scope than that of 
the church or the local Association. Evidence is af- 
forded that these faithful men were early awake to the 
duty of such as came first upon the ground to care for 
the spiritual interests of those who should come later, 
and to send gospel preachers as rapidly as possible 
upon the trail of the pioneer. The measures first 
adopted were, of course, limited in scope, and in a 
degree tentative and transient. But they led on 
toward plans of larger intention and greater perma- 
nency. Organizations local in character broadened 
in time into Territorial or State proportions ; organi- 
zations planned to meet the exigencies then present, 
after a time took other forms, suited to new condi- 
tions as they arose. 

The first Baptist organization upon Western ground 
for mission purposes was the Cincinnati Baptist Mis- 
sionary Society, organized in the summer of 1824 
220 



STATE ORGANIZATION 221 

with one hundred and eighteen members ; which 
number so increased in the first twelve months as to 
give a membership at the end of that time of one 
hundred and eighty-seven. The first president of the 
society was Isaac G. Burnet, and its first secretary 
Ephraim Robins. 

The Board of the society was instructed to confine 
its operations to a section of the State within twenty- 
five miles of Cincinnati, and to employ, as soon as 
practicable, an agent to enlist Baptists of the vicinity 
in the proposed work, to organize Associations, and 
to raise money for expenses of the mission. The first 
missionary agent so employed was Rev. James Lyon, 
who, at the end of six months, reported one thousand 
five hundred and fifty-eight miles of travel, two hun- 
dred and twenty-two sermons, one hundred and nine 
baptisms, and five added to the number of auxiliary 
Associations, making the whole number eight, or, in- 
cluding the parent society, nine such societies in all. 

The originators of the movement, however, were 
soon convinced that the needs of the State demanded 
organization upon a larger scale. The Board of 
Directors accordingly addressed in that behalf, to 
their brethren and to the friends of the Baptist de- 
nomination throughout the State of Ohio, "a cir- 
cular" bearing date September 22, 1825, and signed 
by Noble S. Johnson, president of the Board, and 
Ephraim Robins, corresponding secretary. Accom- 
panying this circular was the first annual report of 
the society, describing the work of the year, and 



222 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

making mention of the labors, additional to those of 
Mr. Lyon, of Rev. Colby Martin and Rev. William 
Spencer ; also reporting proceedings of the delegates 
from the nine auxiliary societies already formed, at 
the meeting in Cincinnati, the first Friday in Sep- 
tember, 1825. Receipts up to that date had amounted 
to two hundred and fifty-eight dollars and eighty- 
seven cents, and disbursements to two hundred and 
sixty-two dollars and sixty-two and a half cents. 

At the meeting of delegates just named, it was de- 
cided to call a meeting for the organization of a State 
Convention, and the time of the meeting was fixed 
for the fourth Monday in May, 1826. At the date 
named, the meeting was held and the Ohio Baptist 
State Convention organized, with a constitution and 
by-laws, duly drawn, and a full corps of officers and 
trustees. The first president of the Convention was 
Rev. James McAboy, of Athens, the three vice- 
presidents, Rev. William White, of Chillicothe, 
Isaac G. Burnet, of Cincinnati, and Rev. Jacob 
Drake, Delaware. Rev. George C. Sedwick, of 
Zanesville, was made corresponding secretary ; Rev. 
William Sedwick, of Cambridge, recording secre- 
tary; and Thomas Wickham, of Zanesville, treas- 
urer. Upon the list of trustees we find, among many 
others, the names of Judge Miller, of Burlington, 
Lorain County ; Judge Dunlevy and Wilson Thomp- 
son, of Lebanon, Warren County; N. S. Johnson, 
Ephraim Robins, Henry Miller, James Challen, 
Thatcher Lewis, Nathaniel Ripley, Aaron Gano, of 



STATE ORGANIZATION 223 

Cincinnati ; John L. Richmond, of Newton, Hamil- 
ton County. 

The Convention having been thus organized, the 
Cincinnati Missionary Society was dissolved. In a 
communication signed by E. Robins and Henry Mil- 
ler, delegates to the Convention, we read : " Having, 
under the smiles of the great Head of the Church, ar- 
rived on the ground on which we, the representatives 
of the Cincinnati Missionary Society now stand, we 
are instructed, and have it in express charge from 
that body, now in the presence of our assembled 
fathers and brethren from all parts of the State, to 
surrender its entire interests to your protecting care." 
On receipt of this communication the Convention re- 
solved, " that the most cordial thanks of the Conven- 
tion be returned to the brethren of Cincinnati for the 
disinterested course they have pursued." 

These particulars are deserving of permanent 
record, as details of history for the beginning of a 
form of organization and service which has been of 
unspeakable benefit to the denomination and to the 
cause of a pure Christianity in these Western States. 1 

State organization in Illinois originated in a series 
of " annual meetings r) of Baptists in the State, 
prompted by convictions of men like Dr. J. M. Peck, 
fervently alive to the need and duty of the hour. An 

1 We are indebted for what appears in the text, to " Records of 
Annual Meetings of the Ohio Baptist State Convention," copied 
by Rev. George E. Leonard, d. d., secretary of the Convention 
during many years, from "original written records preserved in 
the library of Denison University." 



224 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

effort was made to secure general action of the de- 
nomination in the State, with a view to combine re- 
sources in behalf of missions within the State limits. 
The first of these, at which some twenty-five ministers 
and a large number of laymen were present, was held 
at Edwardsville, October 16, 1830, where by them an 
annual meeting was organized. Provision was made 
for another like meeting in July, 1831. At this 
meeting Dr. Going is believed to have been present. 
One of the subjects of discussion on the occasion was 
a national organization in home missions, such as in 
the following year was made in New York, both Dr. 
Peck and Dr. Going having had much to do in 
awakening the interest culminating in that auspicious 
proceeding. 

In July of 1832, a committee, which had been ap- 
pointed by the annual meeting at Edwardsville, met 
at Rock Spring and appointed a " General Union 
Meeting of Baptists" in Illinois, to be held in Octo- 
ber of that year at Winchester. On this occasion an 
address was prepared and authorized, providing for a 
convention to be held at Upper Alton, in October, 
1833, which was held accordingly. At these several 
" annual meetings " it does not appear that anything 
in the form of actual organization was attempted, or 
definite plans for missionary undertakings entered 
upon. They were gatherings of brethren from differ- 
ent parts of the State for purposes of mutual ac- 
quaintance and general discussion. At another such 
convention, however, held at Whitehall, in October, 



STATE ORGANIZATION 225 

1834, more definite measures were adopted, an organ- 
ization beins: made under the name of " The Illinois 
Baptist Convention. ,? 

The Home Mission Society had now entered the 
field, aud it would seem that the leaders in Illinois 
State organization deemed it wiser to depend upon 
that source of missionary supply, rather than attempt 
similar measures of their own. The State Conven- 
tion served its purpose in bringing together brethren 
from different sections of the State, for such general 
ends as might be served in reports from the various 
fields, and comparison of views upon subjects affect- 
ing the common interest. 

Four years after the date of the organization men- 
tioned above, another, similar in character, although 
with a more distinctively missionary purpose in view, 
was formed in the more northern portion of the State, 
and including the then Territory of Wisconsin. The 
contiguity of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin natu- 
rally suggested the idea of combination in plans and 
resources for the common benefit. We have now 
lying before us Minutes of proceedings at the fifth 
and sixth sessions of this body, under its name of 
Northwestern Baptist Convention ; the former held 
at Bristol, 111., in 1843, and the latter at Belvidere, 
in 1844. We find in the constitution the object 
of the Convention defined as being " to co-operate 
with the American Baptist Home Mission Society, to 
which it shall be auxiliary " ; its membership was to 
be " of such persons as subscribe to the constitution, 

p 



226 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

and pay one dollar annually into its funds, and of the 
representatives of religious bodies also, annually con- 
tributing to its funds." The constitution provides 
for a Board of fifteen directors, with " power to 
appoint and dismiss missionaries, to form and locate 
executive committees," in a word, to carry on the 
missionary work of the Convention, this being, as is 
evident, distinctively the purpose of the organization. 

It will afford some idea of the field embraced in 
this organization if we mention that at the Bristol 
meeting we find delegates to have been present from 
the Northern Illinois Association, including Chicago 
and adjacent districts ; the Illinois River Association, 
to which belonged Peoria, and other places in that 
portion of the State ; Rock River Association and 
McLean Association, these being all in Illinois ; but 
besides these, the Wisconsin Association, whose extent 
at the time may be inferred from the fact that Rev. 
A. Miner was present from Waukesha ; Rev. A. Bur- 
gess, from Troy ; Rev. W. R. Manning, from Green- 
field. 

It is not quite clear to what extent the Convention 
undertook missionary work of its own. The treas- 
urer's report rendered at the meeting held at Belvi- 
dere, in 1844, includes in its disbursements sums paid 
to the agent of the American and Foreign Bible 
Society, sent to Shurtleff College, and to conductors 
of the " Northwestern Baptist." Other amounts 
were evidently used for payment of missionary ser- 
vice under auspices of the Convention. We find the 



STATE ORGANIZATION 227 

names of fifteen persons recommended for appoint- 
ment by the Board of the Home Mission Society, and 
approved by the Board, accordingly. The whole 
amount raised and disbursed in all ways, by the Con- 
vention itself, had been one thousand four hundred 
and forty-three dollars and four cents. 

Important new measures in State organization were 
foreshadowed at this meeting at Belvidere, in 1844, 
by the adoption of a resolution to the effect " that a 
delegation be appointed to represent this body at 
Canton, on the twenty-first of November next, to con- 
fer on the subject of a union between the Illinois 
State Convention and the Northwestern Baptist Con- 
vention, to ascertain the particular terms and consider- 
ations upon which such union is contemplated, and to 
make public their deliberations ; also, to request the 
churches and Associations interested, during the year, 
to report their views and instructions at the next 
session of this body." It will give some idea as to 
the leaders in State affairs, if we give the names of the 
delegates : K. B. Ashley, H. Headley, A. J. Joslyn, 
J. Schofield, B. B. Carpenter, Alba Gross, H. G. Wes- 
ton, O. Adams, William Stillwell, S. S. Martin, E. 

H. Hamlin, Whiting, and W. F. Parish. As 

named in the general proceedings, we find these others 
to have been present : Morgan Edwards, B. F. Hays, 
Thomas Powell, J. E. Ambrose, J. F. Tolman, S. S. 
Whitman, L. W. Lawrence, S. Knapp. These may 
be named as among men active in subsequent history, 
or in work on the field. 



228 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The meeting announced in the resolution above 
quoted, was held at Canton, on November 21, 1844, 
being composed of the delegates from the North- 
western Baptist Convention and the Illinois Baptist 
Convention. By these delegates arrangements were 
made for a union of the two bodies, which union was 
accordingly consummated at a meeting held at Tre- 
mont, Tazewell County, in October, 1845, under the 
name of the Baptist General Association of Illinois. 
The final record made by the Executive Committee 
of the Illinois Baptist Convention, bearing date 
October 18, 1845, is as follows : 

After mature deliberation the following resolution was 
adopted : ' l Resolved, that a transfer of the books, papers, 
moneys, liabilities, etc., etc., be made to the Baptist General 
Association of Illinois." Adjourned, sine die. A. Edson, 
President ; J. Francis, Secretary. 

The effect of this action as respects Wisconsin, will 
be seen later on in this history. 

The question of union in State organization in Illi- 
nois proved, however, to be a more difficult one than 
was at first anticipated. It is quite unnecessary to 
enter minutely into the reasons for this. The two 
sections of the State, Northern, and Southern, had 
been settled under auspices in some respects quite 
different : the one mainly from the Eastern, the other 
from the Southern States. Habits, ideas, convictions 
upon national questions, may be said, without dis- 
paragement of either, to have been strongly contrasted. 
Not more than five years accordingly had passed, 



STATE ORGANIZATION 229 

when a movement toward revival of the old Conven- 
tion for Southern Illinois, or the creation of a new 
one, reached a result in such an organization at Bethel 
Church, in St. Clair County, in October, 1850. It 
continued until 1855 or 1856, when it dissolved. In 
1871 or 1872, a new attempt was made in a like 
direction, but this also failed after two or three years 
of feeble life. A more efficient organization with 
the same name, the Baptist Convention of Southern 
Illinois, was created in November, 1876, in a mass 
meeting held at Ewing. This body took up mission- 
ary work, and maintained a vigorous organization, 
till its leaders became convinced that a union of the 
whole State in behalf of purposes such as contem- 
plated in these State societies was a thing to be desired. 
In 1883, accordingly, at Ewing, where its life began, 
this Convention turned over its life-membership to 
the General Association, and adjourned sine die. 
Since that time the Baptists of Illinois in their State 
work have been a united people. 

State organization in Indiana has experienced no 
such vicissitudes as we have found occasion to record 
of Illinois. What of discussion and difference has 
been seen has concerned methods in State missionary 
policy, rather than any question of mere organization. 

The State Convention was organized in April, 1833, 
at Brandywine, in Shelby County. The outset of its 
history was in some respects inauspicious. Churches 
in the State were weak in numbers, very few having 
so many as even one hundred members. Twenty-two 



230 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Associations joined in the organization, yet of these 
more than one-half became later identified with the 
Old School or Anti- mission Baptists, and ceased their 
relations with the general body. Most of the 
churches co-operating were in the southern part of 
the State, and many were either without pastors, or 
could command only partial service. " Even as late 
as 1865," writes President Stott, " I could count but 
fifteen churches that had settled pastors conducting 
services every Sabbath." 

The denominational growth since, in the State, has 
been unquestionably in no small measure due to the 
stimulating influence of the State Convention, the 
harmonizing effect of methods in promoting unity of 
view in doctrine, and in the sense of Christian obli- 
gation, and in the help it has given to feebler churches, 
tiding them over difficult crises in their church life. 

At the organization of the Convention, in 1837, 
Rev. Samuel Harding was chosen president ; Rev. J. 
L. Holman, recording secretary ; Rev. Ezra Fisher, 
corresponding secretary ; and Henry Bradley, Esq., 
treasurer. The Convention does not seem to have 
aimed, at first, so much at the raising and expendi- 
ture of money in State missions, as at organizing 
volunteer service on the part of ministers already in 
the field. Its plan was that each settled minister 
spend a portion of each year in such volunteer ser- 
vice in his own vicinity, holding meetings in destitute 
places, and effecting church organizations where such 
might be called for or justified. The enlistment of 



STATE ORGANIZATION 231 

the local Associations in similar service was tried as 
an extension of this policy, and with a view appar- 
ently to cultivate more of local zeal in this behalf. 
A fund was next proposed for planting Baptist 
churches in villages, as needed, the fund to be secured 
in pledges of moderate sums paid yearly ; a method 
said to have been introduced in Indiana, from Ohio, 
by Rev. T. R. Cressey. 

These various expedients illustrate the fact how in 
all the States more or less systematic and adequate 
methods in the raising and expenditure of funds was 
a matter of development. Funds, indeed, in aid of 
national organizations came slowly in all the States. 
The local work had to struggle against the same class 
of hindrances, including, as has been seen already, 
the paralyzing effect of anti-missionism in at least 
three of the States concerning which we write. In 
Indiana, as in other States, the good effect of more 
enlightened conviction and a more liberal spirit in 
giving, were in due time seen, so that the work could 
be organized and conducted upon that business-like 
basis which encourages confidence while it makes 
results more sure. 

The Michigan State Convention is of even date 
with the State of Michigan itself. Three Associa- 
tions had, in 1836, been formed; the Michigan, in 
1826 ; the St. Joseph River, originally La Grange, 
in 1833 or 1834, and the River Raisin, now Washte- 
naw, in 1835. As nearly as can be ascertained, the 
number of churches in the State, in 1836, was thirty- 



2^2 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

five, of members some two thousand. In the year 
just named the State Convention was organized in the 
Baptist church at Detroit. 

It is worthy of notice how large a proportion of 
those present on the occasion were from other States. 
We find on the list these well-known names : Nathan- 
iel Kendrick, Archibald Maclay, Elon Galusha, 
Elisha Tucker, Levi Tucker, Jirah D. Cole, all these 
being from the State of New York. Six others are 
named all from the same State, who all seem to be 
laymen. The attendance of so many prominent men 
from New York was, no doubt, very much due to 
the fact that by the Convention of that State the 
early churches in Michigan had been fostered, with a 
degree of interest which made itself apparent also on 
this occasion. At the meeting held as called, we find 
that Rev. R. Powell, presided. Of him we learn 
that " he was one of the thirteen who in 1817, in 
prayer together and the offer of a dollar each to the 
object, organized the Hamilton Institution. He was 
for some years the last survivor of that honored 
band." When he died at his home in Clinton, Mich., 
in 1875, and in his eightieth year, he had been in the 
service of the ministry nearly sixty years. 

As was natural, in view of the large and influen- 
tial representation from the State of New York, the 
Convention, in its organization, was modeled after 
that of the body which had from the beginning been 
so helpful to Baptist beginnings in Michigan. The 
constitution adopted stated its object to be the spread 



STATE ORGANIZATION 233 

of the gospel " by multiplying and circulating copies 
of the Holy Scriptures; aiding home and foreign 
missions; promoting ministerial education, Sunday- 
school instruction, and the circulation of religious 
tracts/' Its membership was to be of " those who 
subscribe to its constitution and pay at least one dol- 
lar annually." Subsequently, a life-membership was 
provided for upon payment of ten dollars at one time. 

In the articles of incorporation of the Convention 
we find Kev. John Booth named as president, Rev. 
Miles Sanford as secretary, and Rollin C. Smith as 
treasurer. Of the first of these we have already had 
occasion to speak as belonging to the pioneer ministry 
of Michigan. He had come to the State in 1829. 
Mrs. Eliza Booth Forbes, a daughter of Mr. Booth, 
in a letter from her with which we are favored, says : 
" We were nine days coming up Lake Erie. In De- 
troit father purchased an Indian pony. We lived 
that winter in a log-house with only one room, five 
children, the eldest only nine and a half years old." 
In 1834 Mr. Booth became pastor at Mt. Clemens, 
preaching in the courthouse there, giving one-half his 
time to this place, and the other to St. Clair, twenty or 
thirty miles away. Subsequent pastorates were at 
Pontiac, Jonesville, and other places. His name often 
occurs in the early history of Baptist work and organ- 
ization in Michigan, especially as one of the Conven- 
tion's earliest and most active agents. 

The Michigan Convention had from the beginning 
organized its work upon a well-considered system, and 



234 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

in the support of the various objects contemplated the 
denomination within the State has been remarkably 
harmonious and united. While diverse sentiments as 
to Bible work, secret societies, and anti-slavery policies 
gave rise to opposing organizations in other States, 
the dominant spirit in Michigan has ever insisted that 
freedom of opinion and action is consistent with 
union. At first the several objects contemplated in 
the organization were placed under the care of stand- 
ing committees. In 1874 the method was adopted of 
annually creating Boards, each of which should have 
the object specially entrusted to it under its direction 
during the year, rendering a report of work done, 
with its results, at the annual meeting. These Boards 
are five in number: (1) The Board of State Mis- 
sions ; (2) the Board of Christian and Ministerial 
Education ; (3) the Board of Foreign Missions ; (4) 
the Board of Bible, Publication, and Sunday-school 
Work; (5) the Board of Home Missions. It has 
proved to be the best and most efficient organization 
in any Western State. 

The history of State organization in Wisconsin may 
very properly begin with that of the Wisconsin Bap- 
tist Association, formed at Milwaukee in 1838. Six 
churches united in it, comprising the whole Baptist 
strength of the Territory at that time : Milwaukee, 
Eochester, Southport, now Kenosha, Lisbon, Sheboy- 
gan and Jefferson. It is the more proper to begin 
with this organization, as the purpose of it so much 
looked toward that which was distinctively the pur- 



STATE ORGANIZATION 235 

pose of the Territorial Convention, formed six years 
after. The object of the Association was declared to 
be " to report the condition and progress of the Bap- 
tist churches, and to encourage the planting of new 
churches in the Territory of Wisconsin." A mission- 
ary Board was also appointed, charged with the care 
of this especial work. The prominence given to the 
missionary idea is made evident in Minutes of succes- 
sive anniversaries, the churches being urged to " send 
up their contributions to meetings of the Association" ; 
while at the second such meeting the treasurer re- 
ported that he had " received thirty-one dollars and 
three cents, and six bushels of wheat, and had paid 
the same to Elder Mathews for missionary labor." 
At the same session the clerk reports one hundred and 
twelve dollars from the church in Delavan for mis- 
sionary purposes. At the session held in 1840 the 
churches are " earnestly requested to make a semi- 
annual contribution for the support of the missionary 
cause within this Territory." We have, besides Mr. 
Mathews, mention of still another missionary, Rev. 
A. B. Winchell, whose field covered four counties, 
Walworth, Racine, Milwaukee, and Rock ; his com- 
pensation for a service of fifty-two days being fifty- 
three dollars — not a large compensation, yet the 
" day," evidently, was in all respects one of " small 
things." 

At the fifth anniversary of tins Association, held 
at Racine in 1843, twenty churches were reported in 
the Territory, with a total membership of eight hun- 



236 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

dred and forty-one. Only five of the churches re- 
ported Sunday-schools, and only one had a house of 
worship of its own, the church in Delavan ; a very 
plain one, thirty-six by forty feet, erected in 1841. 
The church in Delavan was the only one of the 
twenty having more than one hundred members, 
while fourteen of them had less than fifty each. The 
population of the Territory at that time was forty- 
four thousand five hundred. 1 

That the Associational organization framed with 
these purposes in view would either assume larger 
proportions soon, or give place to one of larger pro- 
portions, was evident. The latter is what occurred in 
1844. As indicated elsewhere, the Northwestern 
Baptist Convention had now for some years compre- 
hended Wisconsin with Northern Illinois. In the 
same year with the meeting of Wisconsin Baptists 
just noted, 1844, held at Delavan, the Northwestern 
Convention, meeting at Belvidere, 111., had appointed 
delegates to meet with others representing the Illinois 
State Convention, with a view to a union of Illi- 
nois Baptists in one body. The time had evidently 
come for Wisconsin and Illinois each to occupy its own 
missionary ground. 

At the Delavan meeting, a Territorial Convention 

1 Many of these particulars were gathered hy Rev. David 
Spencer, d. d., of Racine, and used in a historical paper read hy 
him at the State anniversaries held at JVTerton, "Wis., in 1893. 
Others we find in papers read hy Dr J. D. Herr and Dr. M. G-. 

Hodge, at the semi-centennial of "Wisconsin Baptists, held at 
Waukesha, Oct. 8-12, 1888. 



STATE ORGANIZATION 237 

was decided upon and an organization made. The 
number of Baptist churches had now grown to some- 
what above thirty, and the total of membership to 
about one thousand five hundred. It was soon ap- 
parent, however, that causes of division were rife and 
active. Chief of all was the question of fraterniza- 
tion in any form with participants in the evil of 
slavery, or apologists for it. At the second anniver- 
sary of the Convention, held at East Troy, in 1846, 
the division of opinion became so pronounced that a 
separation was inevitable. The more conservative of 
those present withdrew from the house in which the 
meeting was held. Reassembling near by in the open 
air, after prayer by Dea. W. H. Byron, a merchant of 
Milwaukee, kneeling " beside an old log in the tall, 
wild grass produced by soil which had not been dis- 
turbed since the days of Noah," the brethren organ- 
ized anew under the name of the Wisconsin Baptist 
General Association, Dea. Byron being made presi- 
dent and Rev. H. W. Reed, of Whitewater, secretary. 
The name was ultimately changed to the Wisconsin 
Baptist State Convention, and is the organization now 
existing under that name. It is held, however, and 
apparently with justice, that this was really a contin- 
uation of the organization made at Delavan in 1844. 
Detailed history of the several State organizations 
whose beginnings we have now thus briefly sketched 
cannot of course be here attempted. It would be 
difficult to overestimate their importance in the de- 
nominational annals of the West. While, especially 



238 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

in the earlier history of these States/ they served as 
no other form of organization did or could to bring 
the ministry and the churches in perhaps widely sun- 
dered districts into mutual acquaintance, and so to 
promote denominational homogeneity, they answered 
no less the purposes of more method in Christian 
work, and more accordant views upon many subjects 
of first importance. 

For the first of these several ends there was more 
occasion than might at once appear. Three of the 
five States, in particular, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
were first occupied under conditions not favorable to 
harmony of opinion on vital questions, or ready co- 
operation in plans for the common service. During 
the years preceding the civil war, and while the great 
anti-slavery issue was still in debate, this was especi- 
ally true. The southern sections of the three States 
named were to a considerable extent settled from the 
Southern and Southwestern States. They were also 
in close contact with those States, and on certain sub- 
jects more in sympathy with them than with those in 
the northern sections of their own commonwealth 
which had been settled so largely from New York and 
New England. The differences, indeed, in ideas, 
habits, and degree of culture may have been less than 
it was natural to imagine; yet, as is well known, doubt 
and suspicion are more active causes of alienation than 
actual difference is, when men are willing to meet on 
such common ground as there may actually be, and 
speak to each other face to face. The war put an end 



STATE ORGANIZATION 239 

to many occasions of controversy, and prepared the 
way for the better understanding between sections of 
the same State, once, particularly in Illinois, in dan- 
ger of real alienation. Following the war mutual in- 
tercourse became possible upon a new basis, and for 
such intercourse the State organizations afforded most 
welcome opportunity. 

The connection with the State mission organization 
of ministerial associations, under the name of Pastoral 
Union or Pastoral Conference, was an important aid 
in the promotion of the end already mentioned, and 
also of others. These associations, formed with a 
view to mutual helpfulness in the study and discus- 
sion of such themes as come naturally within the 
range of a cultivated ministry, served for comparison 
of views upon many subjects of common interest, 
while the stimulus of intellectual encounter and the 
gracious influence of Christian association were quick- 
ening and salutary in many ways. Out of these min- 
isterial conferences in the several States grew the min- 
isters' institutes, which in some sense may be viewed 
as anticipations of what was to come later in summer 
schools and other forms of supplementary educational 
work. They originated with Eev. Gilbert S. Bailey, 
D. D., in 1863, as first under his influence recom- 
mended and set on foot by the Illinois Pastoral Con- 
ference that year. They were adopted in several 
Western States to very great advantage, lectures 
being provided, with other methods of ministerial 
study and discussion found profitable in a high degree. 



240 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Not least of all the benefit of State organization 
appeared in developing interest in missions and plans 
for their promotion. Looking back over the period 
between the year 1826, when the first of the State or- 
ganizations was formed in Ohio, and the present time, 
a period of sixty-eight years, one may fee] much grat- 
ification in the evidences, not only of improvement in 
denominational homogeneity, but in development of 
denominational enterprise and fidelity to the appointed 
mission as a great Christian force in these growing 
States. They have been, more and more, in the yearly 
convocations, centers of stimulus and opportunities 
for culture in Christian knowledge and missionary 
purpose. The presence in them of representatives of 
the great national societies and of missionaries from 
foreign lands has given to the influence felt a measure 
of effect much beyond what concerned work within 
State bounds, and at the same time has helped to give 
the ideal of Christian service a scope in some degree 
commensurate with the mission of a great denom- 
ination. 

The several State organizations with which we are 
here concerned have been fortunate in the men called 
to executive functions, and charged with the duty of 
bringing the interest immediately under their care to 
the attention of the churches. One of the first thus 
engaged in Illinois, was Rev. J. B. Olcott, whose ear- 
liest ministry had been in the southern section of the 
State, and later in Western New York, as one of the 
most active and efficient agents ever in the service, 



STATE ORGANIZATION 241 

either there or elsewhere, of the American Baptist 
Publication Society. His term of service in State 
missions covered only a year or two, as he was claimed 
in a like agency for the university, then in process of 
creation at Chicago. He, however, accomplished much 
even in this short time in placing the work of State 
missions upon an operative and efficient basis. The 
service rendered also by Rev. Ichabod Clark, of 
Rockford, about the same time, while retaining his 
pastorate, was of much value. During four years, 
from 1863 to 1867, Rev. Gilbert S. Bailey held the 
office contributing signally to the growth of mission- 
ary work within the State. Dr. I. N. Hobart suc- 
ceeded him, after whom came Rev. S. F. Gleason, 
Rev. I. W. Read and Rev. H. C. First, Dr. Hobart's 
service was perhaps longest in time, and certainly was 
conspicuous in its organizing and stimulating effect. 
All these men have commanded on the part of their 
brethren high appreciation of their devotion, the wis- 
dom and efficiency of their measures. The initial 
year of Mr. First's service was made notable by his 
success in providing for a burdensome debt, and thus 
placing the State missions in a course of renewed 
prosperity. 

In Ohio, the present highly efficient organization of 
the State work is very much due to Rev. George E. 
Leonard, d. d., for mauy years in the service, a leader 
and an organizer of marked ability. The history of 
similar work in Indiana, records among the State su- 
perintendents of missions the names of Ezra Fisher, 

Q 



242 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

T. R. Cressey, Samuel Harding, A. J. Essex, Albert 
Ogle ; in Michigan of A. E. Mather, T. M. Shana- 
felt, C. E. Conley, and H. F. Cochran. Rev. D. E. 
Halteman, d. d., came to the office of superintendent 
of missions in Wisconsin in 1880, succeeding Rev. 
A. R. Medbury. Eleven years, from 1869 onward, 
he had spent as pastor of the Baptist Church in Dela- 
van, this being preceded by a pastorate at Marengo, 
111., of twelve years, his ordination having occurred 
at Bloo infield, in the same State, in 1857. His edu- 
cation he had received at Granville and at Rochester, 
his earliest church-membership being with the First 
Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio. He took charge of 
the Wisconsin State missions at a time when service 
such as he was prepared to give was much needed. A 
more complete organization was called for, with stim- 
ulation of interest in State missions among the 
churches. For service of both kinds he was exception- 
ally endowed. The work in his hands also was 
brought into efficient relations of co-operation with 
the Home Mission Society, as elsewhere described. 

Among those who had rendered valuable service 
to the State from a very early day, was Rev. J. W. 
Fish, who came to Wisconsin about 1846, after grad- 
uation at Hamilton in 1845. Pastorates at Geneva, 
Racine, Fox Lake, and Waupaca, enrolled his name 
with those by whom the foundations were laid, while 
twelve years of service as general missionary of the 
Home Mission Society put him in active and helpful 
relations with the State work. Under Dr. Halteman, 



STATE ORGANIZATION 243 

whose administration, as we have said, began in 1880, 
that work was reorganized on a basis of marked 
efficiency. 

At the anniversary of the convention, held in Mil- 
waukee in 1893, it appeared that from all sources, 
including the grants of the Home Mission Society 
under the co-operative arrangement, the whole amount 
expended on the field during the thirteen years of his 
administration to that date, had been one hundred 
and eight thousand five hundred and sixty-five dollars 
and forty-eight cents ; the churches and sub-stations 
supplied had been two hundred and eighty-six ; the 
additions to the churches aided : by baptism, three 
thousand three hundred and twenty-four, and in 
other .ways, two thousand two hundred and ninety- 
eight ; amount paid in building chapels, parsonages, 
and in church improvements had been one hundred 
and forty-four thousand and sixty-nine dollars and 
seventy-two cents. 



CHAPTER XI 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 

IN the matter of Sunday-school development and 
growth, the Western States, on either side of the 
great river, owe a large debt of obligation to the 
American Baptist Publication Society. From its 
earliest date this society has stood pledged, in terms 
of its constitution, to this form of service : the object 
of its organization, and the purpose of its existence 
being declared to be " to promote evangelical religion 
by means of the Bible, the printing press, and the 
Sunday-school." 

At the time of the Society's organization, in 1824, 
it was by no means a recognized principle that a 
church without a Sunday-school is lacking in an essen- 
tial element of organized efficiency. Only nine years 
had elapsed since the Sunday-school of the First Bap- 
tist Church, Philadelphia, one of the oldest in the 
country, had been created ; only twenty years since 
what may have been the very first in the whole land, 
that of the Second Baptist Church in Baltimore. To 
say that the American Baptist Publication Society 
has been a chief agent in bringing to pass what is 
seen to-day, is to say only the truth. 

In the West its agency has been made needful by 
244 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 245 

circumstances existing in the very nature of the field, 
and by influences felt long after churches began to be 
formed. Of active opposition to Sunday-schools, as 
to other forms of extra church organization, we have 
already had much to say. To active opposition in 
such cases, apathy and indifference, almost equally 
hard to overcome, are apt to follow. It is this last 
with which missionaries of the society have perhaps in 
the main had to contend — this, aud a tendency to- 
ward satisfaction with imperfect methods and super- 
ficial results. 

The earliest laborers in the West, in this interest, 
were connected with other societies. First to establish 
Sunday-schools west of the Mississippi were Rev. J. 
M. Peck and his associate, Rev. J. E. Welsh, labor- 
ing under appointment of the Home Mission Society. 
The first Sunday-school east of the river and west of 
the lakes was organized by Mr. Peck, at Upper Alton, 
111., in 1819. Of efficient laborers in other States 
particular mention should be made of Rev. Lewis 
Morgan, father of Dr. T. J. Morgan, secretary of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society. In a letter 
dated at Brandy wine, Ind., April 10, 1834, addressed 
to Dr. Going, and accepting an appointment as mis- 
sionary of the society, we find him speaking of a 
Sunday-school of one hundred scholars and " a re- 
spectable Bible class, well organized" by Rev. Ezra 
Fisher, pastor of the Baptist church at Indianapolis. 
The emphatic mention so made, implies something at 
least worthy of remark in the circumstance ; and it no 



246 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

doubt was so. A letter written two or three months 
later, in the same year, speaks of some " association " 
as "prohibiting the churches founding anything in 
support of the gospel ; at least from joining mission- 
ary societies, as well as tract, temperance, and Bible 
societies," and it is well known that alike in Indiana, 
Illinois, and Ohio, Sunday-schools came under the 
same condemnation. " If," says Mr. Morgan, " some 
pious Baptist laymen, capable of teaching, were to im- 
migrate to our State, it would aid us much in the 
cause of education, and particularly in the Sunday- 
school cause. That cause is gaining in our denom- 
ination." 

This seems almost like a foresight of what was to 
be so strikingly characteristic of Sunday-school his- 
tory in the West in years following. The school at 
Indianapolis, of which Mr. Morgan makes mention, 
was to owe its remarkable prosperity during many 
years to its superintendent, Mr. J. E. Osgood, and 
those associated with him ; and Mr. Osgood was only 
one of many laymen in the churches whose zeal 
in Sunday-school service, skill in organization and 
leadership, and magnetism of personal character, were 
to not only make them men of power at home, but to 
win for some of them, at least, a national reputation. 
Mr. Morgan gave much of his time and strength to 
service as a Sunday-school missionary, with some ex- 
perience of opposition bravely encountered, and in 
the spirit of a true Christian evangelism overcome. 

When this period of active opposition had been 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 247 

passed, there still remained the necessity for education 
in the Sunday-school idea, its place in the general con- 
ception and plan of church work, and the methods 
which should make it in its practical operation most 
efficient. For this purpose an agency like the Bap- 
tist Publication and Sunday-school Society was needed. 
Such a service required organization and system, and 
engagement of men suited not only to inspire but also 
to teach and to guide. The system finally adopted 
by the society, and whose operation on the Western 
field was so fruitful of good, was in some sort a de- 
velopment. The first form of it was that of the col- 
porter missionary, the first appointments for that ser- 
vice being in the year 1840, leading the way of such 
appointments in any society by about one year. The 
colporter, in visiting any neighborhood with the books 
of the society, for sale or gift, would preach at night 
in the schoolhouse, or at some private house centrally 
located. The organization of a Sunday-school would 
often be a result, sometimes that of a church. 

In 1867 it was decided to give this form of service 
more of system, and under a different class of labor- 
ers. Sunday-school missionaries were appointed, their 
field of labor being in the West and South. This be- 
came, in process of time, one of the most efficient 
forms of Christian service anywhere in operation. To 
the work of organizing schools was added that of hold- 
ing institutes, at which Sunday-school methods were 
discussed under the lead of the Sunday-school mission- 
ary, and the whole occasion improved for both stimulus 



248 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

and instruction. Of the men long engaged in this 
service, and greatly honored of their brethren, may be 
named Rev. E. A. Russell and Rev. S. H. Huffman, 
in Indiana ; Rev. Charles Rhoades, in Ohio ; Rev. J. 

C. Baker, first of such under appointment in Illinois ; 
followed, in 1879, in an efficient service of five and a 
half years, by Mr. H. R. Clissold, Rev. E. S. Graham, 
in the same State, Rev. L. B. Albert, in the north part 
of the State, succeeded, in 1894, by Rev. E. A. Stone, 

D. d., and Rev. G. W. Danbury, in the southern • 
Rev. E. D. Rundell, in Michigan; Rev. E. B. Ed- 
munds, in Wisconsin ; and Mr. Boston W. Smith, in 
Minnesota. The service so rendered cannot be too 
highly estimated, either in itself, in its fruits, or in the 
devotion, practical efficiency, and gifts for leadership 
in the men engaged. 

The system so planned was organized very much 
through the instrumentality of Dr. C. R. Blackall, of 
Chicago, who, in 1867, the date at which it was set in 
operation, was made district secretary of the society 
for the Northwest. He had long been among the 
most active and influential leaders in Sunday-school 
work. The establishment of the Depository, at Chi- 
cago, under his general direction, was a highly im- 
portant measure ; providing a more direct source of 
supply for all kinds of Sunday-school literature, and 
a center of operations for the system as planned. Dr. 
Blackall was succeeded by Rev. F. G. Thearle, about 
1870, coming to this service after the conclusion of 
his pastorate at Decatur, 111. His superintendence of 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 249 

the work over his extended field took him often to 
the State meetings and other large gatherings, where 
his presence and his stimulating appeals were always 
made welcome. The business of the Society's branch 
house, under his care, developed into proportions 
which made it one of the most important Sunday- 
school centers in the whole country. 

The part which the West has had, through its fore- 
most Sunday-school man, Mr. B. F. Jacobs, in lead- 
ing a national, and finally an international system of 
Sunday-school teaching, and through another of its- 
men with a genius for organization, Dr. William E. 
Harper, in the origination of inductive methods of 
teaching in the schools, should have a conspicuous 
place in the record we here make. Mr. Jacobs, in 
1868, had begun furnishing to " The Standard," of 
Chicago, expositions of lessons published in " The 
National Sunday-school Teacher." About this time, 
also, an exposition of the lesson at the noonday 
prayer meeting, on Saturday of each week, in Chicago, 
was begun, under the direction of Mr. Jacobs and 
Mr. Moody. As such expositions in religious papers, 
and otherwise, became more common, some uniformity 
in the lessons themselves became evidently a thing 
much to be desired. 

In the summer of 1871, a meeting of publishers, 
representing twenty-six periodicals in which Sunday- 
school lessons were published, was held in New York, 
for the consideration of the question of uniform les- 
sons for the whole country. A committee was ap- 



250 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

pointed to prepare such a series of lessons, to be a 
matter of trial for a single year ; but this committee, 
upon coming together to consider the subject, decided 
that the idea was not practicable. Mr. Jacobs, though 
a member of the committee, had not been able to at- 
tend. Learning later of the decision, he succeeded in 
securing another meeting of the committee, and at 
this meeting, under the influence of his eloquent 
urgency, the decision was reversed, and lessons for 
1872 were accordingly framed. In April of the year 
just named, at a Sunday-school convention in Indian- 
apolis, with an immense attendance and great enthusi- 
asm, it was decided, with only ten voices in dissent, 
that the Uniform National Lessons should become the 
policy, and a committee was appointed to have the 
work in charge. In due time the National Series be- 
came International, so that throughout what may be 
called the Sunday-school world, uniformity of study 
and of teaching was adopted. 

The method in Bible study introduced by Dr. 
William E. Harper, was a fruit of his method of 
teaching in Hebrew and the cognate languages — a 
method which very much revolutionized such methods, 
not only in the study of Hebrew, but of the Latin 
and Greek. His treatment of the Sunday-school 
lesson after a similar plan, was introduced in his " Old 
and New Testament Student," and after some years of 
observation as to its value, was adopted by the Amer- 
ican Baptist Publication Society and by other publish- 
ing houses. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 251 

Closely connected with the history which we here 
follow, and having its origin on Western ground, 
though taking shape finally through the Publication 
Society as a chief instrumentality, is the organization 
of the Baptist Young People's Union of America. 
While it may be true that the original awakening of 
interest in the enlistment of young people in religious 
work and Bible study is in a good degree due to the 
National Society of Christian Endeavor, yet it will 
not be true history to say that among Baptists this 
was altogether the case. Meetings held and conducted 
by young people as among regular appointments of 
the church had been more or less in practice during 
many years, and had indeed helped much in preparing 
the way for a larger movement on a more extended 
plan. Among Baptists also, the idea of a general or- 
ganization of the young people, with larger purpose 
than simply the holding of devotional meetings, may 
be said to have had in some degree an origin of its 
own. Although in tracing the movement, with its 
important results, we must limit ourselves chiefly to 
occurrences upon the field of our present narrative, 
yet for the absolute beginning we cross the great river 
into States farther west. 

The thought out of which the organization ulti- 
mately formed may be said to have grown appears 
to have first found definite expression in measures of 
a Kansas pastor, Rev. O. W. Van Osdel, of Ottawa, in 
that State. His thought was the enlistment of Bap- 
tist young people to a greater extent in the general 



252 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

work of the denomination, coupling with this sys- 
teniatic methods of Bible study. The organization 
proposed by him in this view was to be local, associ- 
ational, State, and national. Four specific ends were 
to be held in view. These were, as defined by Mr. 
Van Osdel himself, instruction in the doctrines of the 
Bible, denominational history, proportionate and sys- 
tematic giving, and systematic missionary effort. 
" The department," it is added, " was to be organized 
under a covenant instead of a constitution." The 
motto chosen for the organization as planned, and 
adopted later by that which was actually created, 
was " Loyalty to Christ, in all things, at all times." 
The names " Loyalist" and "Loyalist Movement" 
hence had their origin. 

Application was early made to the Publication So- 
ciety, with a view to secure its co-operation. The 
secretary, Dr. Griffith, gave the movement his general 
approval, but doubted if the denomination were as 
yet ready for it. Mr. Van Osdel, nevertheless, per- 
sisted in his effort to interest pastors and others by 
means of circulars and other forms of publication, 
and by direct correspondence. The responses he re- 
ceived were such as to indicate decided growth of 
interest. Among those who entered most heartily into 
the idea, was Rev. L. W. Terry, then pastor of the 
First Baptist Church, in Grand Island, Neb. Mr. 
Van Osdel, however, found sympathy among pastors 
in his own State, so that at the meeting of the Kansas 
Baptist State Convention, held at Fort Scott, in 1888, 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 253 

a place upon the general programme was assigned to 
the young people, the movement in their interest there 
receiving marked attention. In the following year, 
at the meeting of the Convention, held in October, at 
Clay Center, Kansas, opportunity was afforded to the 
Baptist young people of the State to hold a convention 
of their own, and this must accordingly be regarded 
as the first such gathering of young people in the his- 
tory of this movement. In all this, Mr. Van Osdel 
had the efficient co-operation of such pastors in the 
State as Rev. T. R. Peters and Rev. A. H. Stote, with 
Rev. D. D. Proper, the superintendent of State 
missions. 

Nebraska, meanwhile, in the person of leading 
Baptist pastors, with leaders also of the young peo- 
ple, had become interested. Mr. Terry, in efforts to 
promote a movement in his own State like what was 
going forward in Kansas, had the co-operation of 
Rev. A. W. Lamar and Rev. A. W. Clark, of Omaha, 
Rev. O. A. Williams, of Lincoln, and others. The 
result was an afternoon given up to the young people 
for a session of their own at the State Convention, 
held at Grand Island, in November, 1889. At this 
session a State organization was -effected, with the 
proper officers. 

Mr. Van Osdel now became convinced that the time 
had come for proposing that the movement become 
national. In this view he addressed letters to pastors 
in various leading centers, and obtained in reply from 
a very large number words of cordial approval, also 



254 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

from those in other positions, as President G. W. 
Northrup, Dr. W. R. Harper, President Alvah 
Hovey, and others. At the meeting of the national 
anniversaries, at Chicago, in May, 1891, a large num- 
ber of brethren came together in the interest of this 
question. As the result, an executive committee was 
chosen, consisting of Dr. E. B. Hulbert, O. W. Van 
Osdel, and Dr. C. Perren, charged especially with the 
oversight and promotion of general organization. 

The report of what had been done in Kansas and 
Nebraska had in the meantime awakened interest to a 
like end in other Western States, notably, in South 
Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois. 
Action at the State meetings in the following year, 
significant of such interest in these and in other States 
w r as had, while in Chicago, a Baptist Young People's 
Union for the city was organized, with Mr. John H. 
Chapman as president. As societies of Christian 
Endeavor were already in existence very generally 
throughout the denomination, and attachment to these 
was very strong, some division of opinion appeared 
as to the expediency of a separate Baptist organization. 
The movement for such an organization could not, 
however, be checked. A paper in its interest, styled 
"The Loyalist," was started at Chicago, under the 
proprietorship of Rev. J. M. Coon and Rev. O. W. Van 
Osdel. Meantime the proposal for a national organi- 
zation under some suitable name had enlisted much 
interest, and in connection with this the counter pro- 
posal that the work of the young people be taken up 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 255 

as a branch of the Publication Society's work. In 
December of 1890, "The Loyalist" was transferred 
to Philadelphia, and its publication there continued 
under the name of " The Young People at Work," 
whose controlling idea from its inception was the 
unification of Baptist young people regardless of name 
or organization. The name of the paper was changed 
later to the " Young Peoples Union," and is now 
" The Baptist Union." 

Through the influence of the Society, interest in the 
movement as a denominational one continued to grow, 
and when in April, 1891, a conference was held at 
Philadelphia, called by the Publication Society, to 
consider the question in its national scope, it had taken 
such form in the minds of the members of the confer- 
ence as to secure the adoption of a basis of agreement 
promising to satisfy the views and preferences of all 
concerned. The two points thus agreed to were as 
follows : " 1. That the Baptist national organization, 
when formed in July next, be on a basis broad enough 
to receive all Baptist young people's societies of what- 
ever name or constitution. 2. That no Baptist young 
people's society now organized will be required to or- 
ganize under any other name or constitution in order 
to obtain -representation in such a body, either State 
or national." The influential endorsement by the 
society of this formulation of these two main principles 
of organization, had much to do, beyond doubt, in secur- 
ing the unanimity shown in the national organization 
made in the July following. Indeed it is questionable 



256 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

whether an organization really national could have 
been effected at all had it not been for the Society's 
advocacy and support. 

It was in July, 1890, that the convention at which 
the organization alluded to was made occurred at the 
Second Baptist Church, Chicago. The attendance 
alone made it one of the most notable of such gather- 
ings held in recent times. The number of delegates 
was over two thousand, and the attendance upon the 
sessions of the convention was so large as to necessi- 
tate overflow meetings in the Centenary Methodist 
Church, near by. The temporary organization included 
F. L. Wilkins, D. d., of Davenport, as chairman ; Rev. 
L. W. Terry, of Nebraska, as secretary ; and Prof. 
J. W. Moncrief, of Franklin College, as assistant 
secretary. Christian Endeavor societies were largely 
represented, and the tone of the meeting throughout 
was most fraternal. Among those making addresses 
may be named, besides Mr. Chapman, Drs. Hobbs, 
Henderson, Lowrie, Mabie, Vosburg, Harper, Lori- 
mer, Woods, Gifford, and Revs. J. K. Dixon, of 
Pennsylvania, Leighton Williams, of New York, W. 
F. Taylor, of Indianapolis, D. D. McLaurin, Mr. Ed- 
ward Goodman, Mr. J. O. Staples, Mr. M. G. McLeod, 
Miss Ella McLaurin, Miss M. G. Burdette. A con- 
stitution embodying the principles formulated by the 
conference at Philadelphia was unanimously adopted ; 
the officers first chosen being Mr. John H. Chapman, 
as president ; F. L. Wilkins, d. d., Iowa, Rev. J. 
B. Cranfill, Texas, Rev. O. P. Gifford, Massachu- 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 257 

setts, vice-presidents ; Rev. R. F. Y. Pierce, of New 
Jersey, secretary. 

Upon the Board of Managers the following States 
were represented : Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, 
Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, 
Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, 
with the District of Columbia and Canada. 

The organization made, proved to be a most efficient 
one. Mr. Chapman, a prominent business man in 
Chicago, entered into the service with a zeal that 
never tired, with the practical judgment of one accus- 
tomed to deal with perplexing questions, and added to 
these a talent for public address such as to give him 
power with any audience. Dr. Wilkins, who became 
the corresponding and financial secretary, had been 
warmly interested in the movement from its early 
stages, and most influential in advocating it. Resign- 
ing his pastorate at Davenport, he came to Chicago, 
and gave himself wholly to the work of organizing 
the movement over the whole country. The paper, 
which had been removed to Philadelphia, was retaken 
to Chicago, with a vastly enlarged subscription list, 
under an arrangement with the Publication Society, 
and with this as its organ, Dr. Wilkins becoming 
the editor, the Baptist Young People's Union of 
America began its career of signal prosperity and 
usefulness. 

What has so far been said of the part taken by the 
American Baptist Publication Society in Sunday- 
school and young people's organization, by no means 

R 



258 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

represents the extent of its co-operation and usefulness 
in denominational development throughout the West. 
Of the extraordinary work under its care — chapel- 
car evangelism — we speak in the closing chapter of 
this book. The literature of the Society, in the larger 
sense of that word, has contributed as few other agen- 
cies could have done to the promotion of denomina- 
tional intelligence as regards truth fundamental in 
Baptist teaching, and denominational unity in the 
faith. Western Baptists, strenuous in their own con- 
victions upon denominational questions, have placed a 
high value upon the works it has issued, aiming at 
indoctrination upon these after the New Testament 
teaching and authority. Its literature, as a whole, has 
had a warm welcome in Western -homes, where also 
the name of its late lamented secretary, Dr. Benjamin 
Griffith, has long been honored and beloved, alike by 
the child in the school, and the adult at the fireside 
and in the church. 



CHAPTER XII 

EDUCATION — COLLEGIATE 



THE credit of originating movements in behalf of 
higher education on the field here considered, 
must, it would seem, be yielded to Ohio. When the 
Cincinnati Domestic Missionary Society was formed 
in 1824, as described in a former chapter, among its 
objects were these : " To promote the cause of gospel 
missions, and the education of ministers, called, chosen, 
and faithful." 1 This is, so far as any record shows, 
the first note of that advocacy of education as a motive 
in denominational enterprise, destined to be heard so 
often and to such purpose in later years. 

Under the auspices of the Cincinnati society, a Bap- 
tist State Convention, as we have already shown, was 
organized in 1826. The cause of education during 
the first two or three years of the new organization, 
appears to have received only a passing attention, a 
resolution at the second anniversary, held in 1828, 
simply expressing a great interest in the prosperity of 
" Columbian College," at Georgetown, D. C, and 

1 From a paper by Prof. F. W. Shepardson, in the "Fifth Gen- 
eral Catalogue of Denison University," 1893. 

259 



260 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

"recommending it to the patronage of our brethren 
throughout this State." 

At a meeting of the Convention at Lebanon, held 
in 1830, steps were taken, not formally by that body 
itself, but bv members of the Convention, anions 
whom we find named Hubbell Loomis, who was 
chairman of the meeting, Geo. C. Sedwick, Wilson 
Thompson, Hezekiah Johnson, Henry Miller, Ichabod 
Corwin, Esq., and eleven others, having in view " the 
adoption of some measures looking to the encourage- 
ment of education in the Baptist denomination in the 
State of Ohio." It was also a Eesolved, That the 
meeting deems it expedient that a literary and theo- 
logical seminary, under the patronage of the regular 
Baptist denomination of Christians, be established in 
the State of Ohio." 

As it was in 1831 that Dr. Jonathan Going visited 
the West, it is clear that the movement in behalf of 
higher education in Ohio had at that date already been 
initiated by men upon the ground. Nearly at the 
same time, so nearly as to leave room for a possible 
question as to the priority of dates, Rev. John M. 
Peck, in Illinois, had taken steps in a like direction. 

In 1826, Dr. Peck visited New York and New 
England, soliciting aid for the West, "both in sus- 
taining missionaries, and to assist in founding a liter- 
ary and theological institution" at the place of his 
residence, Pock Spring. Although two years had 
then passed since the action of the Cincinnati Domes- 
tic Missionary Society, above mentioned in 1824, it is 



EDUCATION 261 

clear that leaders in denominational affairs in Ohio 
and Illinois had this important matter under consid- 
eration at the very same time. The credit for the first 
distinct expression in that behalf belongs, however, to 
the former of these two States. 

Resuming our notice of the informal meeting at 
Lebanon, Ohio, in 1830, we find the following action 
on record, additional to what is quoted above, attesting 
the expediency of founding a " literary and theolog- 
ical seminary " under Baptist auspices : " That the 
brethren present now form themselves into a society 
to carry into effect the object of the above resolution; 
that a committee of three be appointed to draft a con- 
stitution for the society, and that brethren Bradley, 
Sedwick, and Herrick be that committee ; that breth- 
ren Wilson Thompson, J. Boyd, and N. S. Johnson, 
be a committee to prepare an address to the churches 
on the subject ; that a committee be appointed to re- 
ceive proposals and solicit donations to the object of 
the meeting" — which committee, consisting of some 
fifty members, was accordingly chosen. Of men on 
this list whose names have before appeared in our his- 
tory, we note the following : Geo. C. Sedwick, William 
Sedwick, Wilson Thompson, Hezekiah Johnson, John 
L. Richmond. The meeting further resolved : " That 
when this meeting adjourns, it shall be adjourned to 
meet at Zanesville, on the first Wednesday (the 6th) 
of October next, 1830 ; that this meeting recommends 
to the attention of our denomination the institution 
under the care of Rev. Joshua Bradley, now in sue- 



262 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

cessful operation at Middletown, Butler County, until 
the contemplated seminary be established, and that 
Bro. Bradley be requested to secure the services and 
library of Eld. Loomis in that institution, if prac- 
ticable." From this last it appears that a school was 
already in progress, although this is the only mention 
made of it in the record we follow. 

In their address to the churches, the committee of 
fifty before named, with Rev. Geo. C. Sedwick as 
chairman, urged upon them the importance of what 
had been proposed, and mentioned that certain offers 
for a site of the proposed institution had already been 
received. The society met again pursuant to adjourn- 
ment, on the 6th of October, in the same year, at 
Zanesville. Hon. Francis Dunlevy was made chair- 
man of the meeting. Besides the adoption of a con- 
stitution, the society had in hand the selection of a 
site for the proposed seminary. We find that an ex- 
tended communication was received, expressing the 
views of Geo. Patterson, Noble S. Johnson, John 
Wooley, Adam McCormick, Thacher Lewis, A. Dudley, 
and C. E. Robins, prominent Baptists of Cincinnati, 
who desired that Newport, Ky., might be selected as 
the site of the seminary. The decision reached, after 
full consideration, was that the contemplated institu- 
tion " ought to be located in this State (Ohio), in con- 
formity to the principles agreed on at the meeting in 
May last." The place finally chosen was Granville, 
the opinion of Dr. Going, then on a visit to the State 
being of much weight in that behalf. 



EDUCATION 263 

On May 26, 1831, the society again met, at Lancas- 
ter, twenty-seven miles from Granville. Adjourning 
" to meet at Granville, at 4 P. M. to-morrow," the 
brethren, after a journey across the country by such 
conveyances as were at command, met as adjourned, 
prayer at the opening of their meeting being offered 
by Dr. Going. The following resolutions were the 
result of the meeting : 

That it is expedient to establish a college as soon as prac- 
ticable under the direction of the Regular Baptists ; that it 
is expedient to make immediate arrangements for the com- 
mencement of a school where the learned languages and 
higher branches of English education may be taught ; that a 
committee of three be appointed to make inquiry where a 
classical teacher may be obtained as principal of said school, 
who shall also be qualified to instruct students in theology ; 
and that said committee be Elder Greorge Sedwick, J. McLeod, 
and Allen Darrow ; that we appoint an agent to travel and 
present the object of the institution, and collect funds. 

As a site for the college, Granville Baptists had 
given "a farm, a mile and a half southwest of the 
village, estimated to be worth three thousand four 
hundred dollars." The subscription made on the oc- 
casion we are describing; bv members of the societv 
present, amounted to forty-one dollars. The deed of 
the farm, as given, bore date June 2, 1831, and the 
charter to " Granville Literary and Theological Insti- 
tution," granted by the legislature of the State, Feb. 
3, 1832. 1 In 1845, the "Granville Literary and 

1 For the interesting particulars given in the text, we are in- 



264 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Theological Institution" became Granville College, 
and in 1856, in recognition of the liberality of Hon. 
William S. Denison, of Adamsville, Ohio, who had 
pledged ten thousand dollars to the endowment, it be- 
came Denison University. 

The following record of the absolute beginning at 
Granville, we find in the u Fifth General Catalogue 
of Denison University, 1893" : 

Granville Literary and Theological Institution was organized 
at Granville, Ohio, December 13, 1831, with thirty-seven 
students, the oldest among them being thirty-seven years of 
age, and the youngest eight. Twenty-seven of them were 
from Granville, and all but two, William Whitney and Giles 
Peabody, were from Ohio. There were five preachers among 
them, and seven . . . were Baptists. In the second quar- 
ter there were seventy enrolled, and in the third, seventy-two. 
The college building was the small Baptist church, whose 
walls were unplastered, and whose benches were made of slabs. 
John Pratt was the sole teacher. In such a humble way did 
Denison University get the start. 

Let who will " despise the day of small things." 
In such a record as this there is, at some points of 
view, more of interest, than in a gift of millions for 
the endowment of a single great school sixty years 
later, when the mighty wilderness on the territory of 
these five States had changed to fruitful fields, the 

debted to the paper by Prof. P. W. Sbepardson, before cited, 
who had evidently made much and careful examination of origi- 
nal documents. "We are the more minute in our detail here, as 
it is of much interest to note the precise circumstances under 
which the first incorporated educational institution in these five 
States came into existence. 



EDUCATION 265 

crude beginnings of cities had grown to metropol- 
itan dimensions, and in the openings offered to genius 
and enterprise, fortunes were made in a day. 

The "course" of educational history, especially in 
the case of institutions like the one here in view, can 
never with reason be expected to " run smooth." This 
at Granville, whether as a literary and theological insti- 
tution, as college or as university, has had its ordeals. 
But its supporters have been loyal to it, and the men 
to whom the care of its interests was committed would 
seem to have discharged their trust not only with fidel- 
ity, but with excellent foresight and judgment. Of 
those who have been instructors there, we must speak 
later, also of the goodly dimensions to which, as an 
institution of the first class, it has grown. One pas- 
sage in this history, occurring about midway of the 
whole period covered by it, we must give, as illus- 
trating methods by which not only this, but other 
Western institutions, have been lifted into independ- 
ence. We are indebted for it to Rev. F. Clatworthy, 
in a letter to the " Standard," of Chicago : 

It was in 1863, that Dr. Thresher [Dr. J. B. Thresher, of 
Dayton, one of the most efficient friends the university has 
ever had] at a State Convention in Dayton, made a thrilling 
speech, urging his brethren to rally around the college at Gran- 
ville, and raise for it an endowment of one hundred thousand 
dollars. Some one interrupted him while speaking, and asked 
him to name his sum. He did so, and the little ball began to 
roll. Afterward, as his great heart grew warm in the work, 
and God prospered him, he increased his own subscription to 
five times the original sum. He enlisted the sympathy of 



266 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

others. Cleveland, Cincinnati, and other cities joined Dayton 
in the effort at endowment. Friends of the college multiplied. 
The raising of the first one hundred thousand dollars was a 
struggle, but it was accomplished. April 24, 1867, witnessed 
complete triumph. Then followed another one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and then another, until now [1886] the fourth is 
being secured. 

Dr. Thresher may represent in this history a noble 
succession of men, who in times of extremity have 
rallied the friends of institutions like Denison Uni- 
versity or other great denominational interests in 
hours of peril, and with leadership in giving, as well 
as in speech, have made the hour of danger an hour 
of triumph. 

Turning now to Illinois, we find two men active 
there in a like interest, John M. Peck and Hubell 
Loomis, the latter having already appeared among 
originators of the educational movemeut in Ohio. 

Dr. Peck himself says, in a letter written some 
years later to General Mason Brayman : 

In 1826, when not a single academy or boarding school of 
any kind (except the Catholic seminaries) existed in Illinois or 
Missouri, I went to the Atlantic States, ' ' on my own hook ' ' 
(to use a Western figure), to obtain aid in the establishment of 
a seminary. Next year, 1827, the building and institution 
known as Kock Spring Seminary was started. . . During 
that season (1826) I visited every prominent institution, col- 
leges, high schools, etc. , in my range of travel, to learn all I 
could of their system of management. 

An incident connected with these proceedings of 
Dr. Peck is thus related : 



EDUCATION 267 

One day-a young Presbyterian minister, Rev. John M. Ellis, 
a graduate of the Andover Theological Seminary, and who 
had then recently come into Illinois, was riding on horseback 
through "the Sangamon Country," as the region here in 
question was called. As he was making his way over the 
lonely prairies, interspersed here and there with patches of 
timber, he came to a small clearing in the midst of hazels and 
black-jacks, and was arrested in his progress by the sound of 
an axe. Observing the woodsman more nearly, he called to 
him with the question, ' ' What are you doing here, stranger? ' ' 
"lam building a theological seminary. " " What, in these 
barrens ? " " Yes, I am planting the seed. ' ' This was Dr. 
J. M. Peck, founding the seminary at Rock Spring. Mr. 
Ellis was afterward active in originating the Illinois University 
(Congregational) at Jacksonville. l 

Rev. Hubbell Loomis came from Ohio to Illinois in 
1830. His interest in education, shown already dur- 
ing his residence in the former State, was unabated, 
dating in fact from his experiences as a teacher in New 
England, where from the beginning education was so 
much a chief concern. Almost immediately steps 
were taken by him for the foundation of a seminary 

1 "The Baptists and the National Centenary," American Bap- 
tist Publication Society, 1876 : article, " Home Missions," p. 161. 
The school at Rock Spring opened Nov. 15, 1827. Rev. Joshua 
Bradley, of Connecticut, and of whose school at Middletown, 
Ohio, we have written above, was principal, and Dr. Peck pro- 
fessor of theology. The average attendance during the three 
years of continuance of the school was forty or fifty. The last 
of the buildings erected there was burned in 1852. The value of 
the property removed to Upper Alton was estimated at three 
hundred or four hundred dollars. (These particulars were given 
by Dr. G-. J. Johnson in an address at the sixty-seventh anni- 
versary of the Bethel Baptist Church, near Rock Spring.) 



268 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

at Upper Alton, where he had made his home. In 
1831, Dr. Going, whose visit in the West at that date 
has been several times mentioned, visited both Rock 
Spring and Upper Alton. The result of his visit and 
advice was the selection of the latter place as the site 
of the institution, in the building of which the de- 
nomination in Illinois should unite. The school at 
Rock Spring was closed, and the proceeds of the sale 
of its property were used for the enlargement of that 
which had been already secured at Upper Alton. The 
seminary there, under new auspices, opened on June 
4, 1832, with Rev. Hubbell Loomis as principal, and 
Rev. Lewis Colby as professor of theology. It is 
clear that a leading purpose in the enterprise was pro- 
vision for the education of a Baptist ministry in the 
State. More than this, however, or than a merely 
academical education in connection with it, was contem- 
plated. Almost immediately the question of making 
the seminary a college was advanced. Dr. Peck's ac- 
count of the matter is, that seven gentlemen " formed 
a compact to establish a college to be under the super- 
vision of Baptists, and engaged in a written obliga- 
tion to advance each one hundred dollars, which was 
subsequently increased to one hundred and twenty- 
five, and to become obligated in the loan of eight hun- 
dred dollars more." These seven, with J. M. Peck, 
and James Lemen added in 1833, and with the name 
of Hubbell Loomis first upon the list, were the origi- 
nal trustees. 

With a portion of the sum received, as just noted, 



EDUCATION 269 

land to the extent of one hundred and twenty-two 
acres, was purchased in the neighborhood of Upper 
Alton, and with the remainder and added donations 
from citizens of the town, a building was erected. 
The school, under its new auspices, opened with 
twenty-five students. Two or three years later, a 
donation of ten thousand dollars to the college was 
made by Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, of Boston, Mass., 
and in recognition of this gift, in that day a generous 
one, the college took his name, and, in 1835, received 
from the legislature a charter under the name of Shurt- 
leff College. In the charter, as originally given, the 
teaching of theology was forbidden, but in 1841 this 
restriction was removed. 

Baptist educational beginnings in Indiana were not 
far removed, in point of date, from those in Ohio and 
Illinois. The initiatory step was the organization of 
an education society in 1834, following quite closely 
upon that of the General Association, and by the 
same men. Prominent in this connection are the 
names of Dea. Henry Bradley, Rev. Ezra Fisher, 
Rev. Lewis Morgan, Rev. William Rees, Rev. J. L. 
Richmond, M. D. 

The first meeting of the organization was held June 
5, 1835, with Rev. Wm. Rees as president, and Rev. 
Ezra Fisher as secretary. At this meeting measures 
were adopted bringing the subject of education to the 
attention of Baptists in the State. Different men 
were appointed to write articles for publication in the 
" Cross and Journal," at Cincinnati, upon such sub- 



270 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

jects as the following : " What influence ought the 
Baptist denomination to exert upon the religious and 
literary world ? " " What influence do we exert upon 
the religious and literary world ? " " What influence 
do we exert upon the religion and literature of our 
own country ? " " The importance of religious edu- 
cation in the formation of the character of our youth. " 
" The influence of an enlightened ministry on the in- 
terests of religion in general, and our own denomina- 
tion in this State in particular." " The influence 
which the education of the youth of our own denomi- 
nation would exert on the Baptists of Indiana," 
"What influence would a Baptist institution of 
learning exert upon our denomination in Indiana ? " 
These are fundamental questions, and show that 
originators of educational institutions in the West 
aimed from the beginning at effective work. 

Steps were immediately taken for the erection of 
an institution of learning with these ends in view. 
Results in the earlier years, as was the case in other 
States, were not large. Offers of location for the 
school were invited, and from the four sites named 
with various inducements, Franklin was chosen, and 
here a Manual Labor Institute was opened in 1837. 
The course of instruction was at first upon a limited 
scale. Eev. A. F. Tilton, of Deerfield, N. H., was 
chosen principal, and associated with him was the 
gentleman since known as Hon. W. J. Robinson, and 
his sister, Miss Julia Robinson. In 1840, Mr. Tilton 



EDUCATION 271 

resigned, and Rev. G. C. Chandler, pastor of the Bap- 
tist church in Indianapolis, was chosen principal in 
his place. In 1844 the institute was chartered as 
Franklin College, with Dr. Chandler as president. 
"He did royal service," writes President Stott, 
" teaching and preaching through the State till 1851, 
when he resigned, to go to Oregon. Under him 
seven men were graduated from the classical course, 
the first in 1847, John M. Dame, at this writing 
(1895) still living. The finances, all this time," it 
is added, " were kept up by agents canvassing for 
current funds. No endowment was yet gathered. 
In 1844 one brick building was erected." 

Dr. Chandler was succeeded in the presidency by 
Rev. Silas Bailey, D. D., who came to Franklin in 
1852, from the presidency of Granville College, Ohio. 
Of him President Stott says : " He was a scholarly 
man and an able preacher. He remained in the pres- 
idency till 1862, when failing health compelled him 
to resign." During his presidency, another brick 
building was erected, and considerable progress had 
been made in obtaining subscriptions to endowment. 
"But scholarships were sold cheap, the subscriptions 
were not generally paid, and so the finances were very 
meagre ; and yet the faculty was composed of strong 
men, such as Professors Hougham, Brand, Bailey 
(Mark Bailey, brother of the president), and Brum- 
bach. 

" President Bailey graduated twenty-one men, all 



272 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

in the classical course but two. Among his grad- 
uates were Dr. T. J. Morgan, and the present presi- 
dent and treasurer of the college. The war came on, 
and nearly all the young men were in the field, so the 
college was closed, and remained closed until 1869." 
We are dealing at this point only with the earlier 
history of education in these several States, and we 
pass now to Michigan. " At one point and for a few 
years," writes Prof. Daniel Putnam, 1 " the current of 
State education and one of our own streams became 
intermingled and flow along with some ripplings and 
interruptions. The Territorial government in addi- 
tion to its legislation in regard to public schools and 
the university, framed acts of incorporation for sev- 
eral academies and other institutions of learning. 
Three at least had thus been provided for before the 
year 1833. In that year more were incorporated. 
Among these was the Michigan and Huron Institute, 
whose charter bears date August 22. By an act of 
legislature of the State, approved March 21, 1837, the 
name was changed to Kalamazoo Literary Institute. 
In this charter our collegiate work finds its starting 
point." Prof. Putnam names among the trustees ap- 
pointed, " Caleb Eldred, John Booth, Thomas W. 
Merrill, John S. Twiss, Stephen Goodman, and C. 
H. Lamb." The act creating the institution gives 
no intimation of any religious or denominational pur- 

1 In a paper read at the Semi-Centennial of the Michigan Bap- 
tist State Convention, in 1886. 






EDUCATION 273 

pose in the establishment of the proposed school. The 
location of the school (at first the Michigan and Hu- 
ron Institute) at Kalamazoo occurred in 1835, the 
name being changed two years later, as noted above, 
to Kalamazoo Literary Institute. 

The school was at first conducted as a branch of 
the State University at Ann Arbor, and was partly 
supported by appropriations from the treasury of 
that institution. Dr. J. A. B. Stone, first of the prin- 
cipals to hold the position for any length of time, was 
appointed by the university authorities. " This anom- 
alous state of affairs terminated at about the close of 
1846, when the branches were all given up, and the 
resources and energies of the university were con- 
centrated at Ann Arbor." 

An active agent in these early movements for edu- 
cation in Michigan, was Rev. T. W. Merrill, of whose 
zeal in behalf of education we have already had occa- 
sion to speak. " On the 22d of November," writes 
Dr. Haskell, "Rev. Thomas W. Merrill alighted from 
his Canadian racker in Ann Arbor, and commenced 
a classical school. A few months before, he had come 
preaching in the wilderness, an emigrant from Maine 
and a fresh graduate from Waterville College and 
Newton Theological Seminary. The object of his 
coming, as he then wrote, was to promote the intel- 
lectual as well as the moral advancement of the 
people of the Territory of Michigan." l 

1 "Historical Sketch of Kalamazoo College," p. 3. 
S 



274 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Associated with Mr. Merrill was Judge Eldred, 
who was, at the time mentioned, "just dragging his 
surveyor's chain through the untrodden grasses and 
over the unbent bushes of our Western prairies and 
openings, and encamping with enthusiastic admira- 
tion beneath our majestic forests and beside our min- 
iature lakes." Mr. Eldred had come from "where 
the long shadow of the ' Hamilton ' of Hascall and 
of Kendrick had swept over him. 

Michigan, as far as the active proceedings of these 
two men were concerned, was in point of time quite 
in line with the other three States already noticed 
in their educational history. In September, 1831, 
Mr. Merrill secured letters of introduction from the 
Michigan Baptist Association, meeting at Pontiac, 
and proceeding to New York, having received the 
approval of the New York State Convention, secured 
subscriptions for the beginning of educational work 
in Michigan. These seven names, with subscriptions 
of ten dollars each, are " ever-to-be-remembered 
names " in that State : Jonathan Going, Nathan 
Caswell, James Wilson, John H. Harris, Byron O. 
Green, William Colgate, and E. Withington. " This 
money went to purchase the property first bought 
for the institute in Bronson, now Kalamazoo." The 
act of legislature incorporating the Michigan and 
Huron Institute was obtained from the legislature 
after repeated petitions to that effect, by Mr. Merrill 
and his associate, Judge Eldred. 



EDUCATION 275 

An important feature of the history, and one highly 
influential in determining its subsequent course was 
the part taken by the Michigan Baptist State Conven- 
tion. When the Convention was organized in 1836, 
the school founded by Mr. Merrill having been 
already three years in operation, the following reso- 
lution, reported by a committee on the subject, was 
adopted : 

1. That while the Convention regard with peculiar 
pleasure the early and liberal efforts to establish a literary 
institution in Kalamazoo County, and the success which 
has attended these efforts, they deem it important that a 
more general effort be made to establish, as soon as may 
be, a literary institution of a higher character, having all 
the incorporate powers of a college. 2. That for that 
purpose we recommend the appointment of a committee 
to take the subject into consideration, and devise the 
most effectual means to establish such an institution in 
the most eligible situation in the State. 3. That we rec- 
ommend the appointment of an executive committee on 
education, whose duty it shall be to devise and prosecute 
the best measures for securing funds for the support of 
ministerial education, and also to seek out and recom- 
mend to the regard of the Convention such facilities as 
may exist for the promotion of general education. 

This language, as Prof. Putnam says, " was in har- 
mony with the language of the newly adopted con- 
stitution, enumerating among the purposes of the or- 
ganization, the promotion of the cause of education, 
especially that of the rising ministry." 



276 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The committee provided for in the resolution was : 
&ev. Robert Turnbull, then pastor of the church at 
Detroit, Eev. J. Booth, T. W. Merrill, O. Birdsall, 
W. A. Brown, Hon. Caleb Eldred, and Deas. Jones, 
Riggs, and Fish. The committee was instructed to 
confer with the committee on charter for the Michigan 
and Huron Institute, the effort for such a charter be- 
ing still pending. Meantime the State University 
had been founded with a determination on the part of 
the legislature to empower no other institution in the 
State to grant degrees. This put a check on efforts 
of the Convention and its Board toward the founding 
of a college. The Kalamazoo Literary Institute re- 
mained the Baptist school, being viewed as a branch 
of the State University, until, as before stated, the 
abandonment of that policy in 1846. It was not 
until 1855 that the charter of the institution was so 
amended as to confer college powers. In that year 
this important result was at last reached, " and the 
corps of instructors so enlarged as to meet the de- 
mands of the college course, which was required to 
be of as high a grade as that of the State Univer- 
sity." ^ 

During all this long waiting period of eighteen 
years from the date at which, in 1837, the Michigan 
and Huron Institute became the Kalamazoo Literary 
Institute, the convention continued, without abate- 
ment, its fostering care. The school was made to 
serve for the education of both sexes ; Dr. Stone, 



EDUCATION 277 

after he became principal, having the co-operation of 
his accomplished wife, a separate department for young 
women being created, under her care, after the insti- 
tute became a college. The interest of the Conven- 
tion, however, was very much in behalf of ministerial 
education, and this purpose was kept steadily in view 
in all its measures. In 1845 the Convention resolved 
" that the time has fully come when the interests of 
the Redeemer's cause in this State require us to take 
immediate measures for the theological education 
of pious young men for the gospel ministry." 

The Board of the Convention " was instructed to 
establish a theological institute as soon as the requi- 
site funds could be obtained. A preference was ex- 
pressed for Kalamazoo as a location for the school, 
but the Board was left with liberty to select another 
place if they should find good cause for doing so." 
During the following year, 1846, land to the amount 
of forty acres was secured at Kalamazoo. The Lit- 
erary Institute had, at the time of its removal to Kal- 
amazoo and change of name, secured other land at a 
cost of $2,500, amounting to over one hundred acres. 
This property, when the Convention took the educa- 
tional interests of Baptists in the State under its care, 
had been transferred to it. Sales of this land were 
now, in 1846, made, and with the proceeds a building 
erected for the uses of a theological seminary, the in- 
stitute under this arrangement being a joint occu- 
pant. 



278 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

At first the work of the Literary Institute was 
carried on independently, the Convention having 
charged itself with that of theological instruction 
only; Dr. Stone, principal of the institute, being 
made professor of biblical literature and theology, 
and in 1851 Rev. Samuel Graves, professor of Greek 
in the institute and of systematic theology in the 
seminary. The desire being strongly felt that the 
work should be more unified, that result was secured 
in the abandonment of the male department of the 
institute and its transfer to the Convention, with an 
agreement on the part of the latter to sustain a thor- 
ough literary and scientific course of instruction ex- 
tending over not less than four years. The depart- 
ment of the institute for young women was continued 
as a distinct school, though under the same general 
supervision, with Mrs. Stone as its principal. 

In 1855, as before stated, the institute became a 
college, and regular college work as well as instruc- 
tion in theology and the education of young women 
made, so far, a complete curriculum. A separate 
building was provided for the young ladies' school, 
which enjoyed much prosperity under the direction of 
Mrs. Stone and her associates. 

Efforts for securing an endowment for the semi- 
nary had in the meantime been in progress, though 
with only partial results. In the building and gen- 
eral expenses, also, a debt had been incurred, amount- 
ing to $30,000, and this was for some years felt as a 



EDUCATION 279 

serious burden. In 1864—65, however, a united and 
determined effort was made to remove this debt, re- 
sulting in a triumphant success. Of the subsequent 
history of the seminary Prof. Putnam writes : 

In 1851-52 the faculty of the theological seminary was 
composed of Dr. J. A. B. Stone and Dr. S. Graves. The 
names of five theological students appear in the catalogue of 
that year. A considerable number of others having the 
ministry in view were enrolled in the literary department. 
In 1854-55 the faculty numbered three and the students 
in the theological department had increased to fifteen. 
Some of those were also reckoned in the first senior class of 
the newly organized college. The next year the number of 
students had fallen to nine. Gradually in the succeeding 
years, the theological department, in respect to students, 
exhibited with some variations a constant decline. The 
strictly theological work ceased after about 1858-59. 

We pass over the years that follow, leaving for sub- 
sequent mention personal details as to those charged 
with the work of instruction at Kalamazoo. For 
what concerns the issue of relations with the State 
Convention, we are indebted to Dr. Haskell, whose 
communication in that regard we copy in full : 

In 1889 the entire site and buildings, of which the title 
had been in the Convention, was conveyed to the college 
Board in trust, in consideration of a specified sum to be 
paid annually in tuition of students for the ministry. 
Thus the mixed proprietorship of former years gave plaoe 
to the single one of the college. 



280 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

In 1892, $100,000 was raised by general subscription as ■ 
an addition to the endowment, making the productive 
endowment something over $200,000. The college site is 
an elevated grove of over twenty acres, lying within the 
west boundary of the city, and overlooking a fine pros- 
pect of city and valley. Three spacious and substantial 
buildings furnish a dormitory, library, and society rooms 
for young men, a ladies' boarding hall, and chapel and 
recitation rooms for common use. For studies in the 
theological course, the State Convention and liberal friends 
co-operate in the Divinity School of the University of 
Chicago, and in aid of students in other seminaries. 

We have next to narrate the history of the institu- 
tion now known as "The Old University of Chi- 
cago," an institution whose annals, written in full, 
cover a period of some thirty years, a period of na- 
tional ordeal and disaster, in the effects of which the 
university necessarily shared. In spite of the unfor- 
tunate issue, which, however, has seemed after all 
almost like a providential preparation for what should 
be larger in scope and capable of larger things, there 
is much in that history to be recalled with grateful 
satisfaction. The work of instruction in the univer- 
sity was always of the best quality, and gave, not 
only to the Christian pulpit, but to all the learned 
professions and various spheres of business life, 
trained men whose subsequent career has conferred 
honor upon the institution and its instructors. They 
have cherished, even in times when the university was 
under a cloud, the warmest respect for those who had 



EDUCATION 281 

been their teachers, and were of those who most sin- 
cerely lamented the calamitous issue of a history 
which for them had meant so much. 

The university owed its origin instrumentally to two 
men, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, then United States 
Senator, and John C. Burroughs, at that time pastor 
of the First Baptist Church, Chicago. Mr. Douglas 
had, a short time before, been left a widower by the 
death of a wife to whom he was deeply attached. She 
was a Baptist, a member of the church in Washing- 
ton, D. C, of which Dr. G. W. Samson was then 
pastor. It was understood to have been the earnest 
desire of Mrs. Douglas that her husband should in 
some way render service to the denomination whose 
interests she warmly cherished, and in this she was 
innuentially seconded by her pastor. Mr. Douglas 
had proposed a donation of land near what was 
then the southern limit of Chicago, as the site for a 
university to be under the general auspices of some 
denomination of Christians. An attempt was made 
by the Presbyterians to meet the conditions of the 
proposal. Upon the failure of this, Mr. Burroughs, 
jointly with Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Hon. Charles 
Walker, and other friends of Mr. Douglas, took the 
matter up. In the year 1856, or about that date, he 
visited Mr. Douglas in Washington, and with the co- 
operation of Dr. Samson, secured for the Baptists an 
offer of the proposed donation. 

The terms of the offer were, in substance, these : 



282 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The university was to be founded, built, and carried 
on under the care and general direction of the de- 
nomination of American Baptists. It was to provide 
means of good education in all branches of collegiate 
instruction. With a view to secure the contemplated 
denominational feature, it was agreed that the presi- 
dent of the university and two-thirds of the trustees 
should always be Baptists. The religious tenets of 
no one denomination of Christians, however, were 
to form any part of the course of study, and the 
appointment of members of the faculty other than 
the president, was to be without religious conditions 
or tests of any kind. It was also provided in the 
deed of gift made to Mr. Burroughs in trust for the 
purpose named that within one year a building to cost 
not less than one hundred thousand dollars should be 
erected, upon the completion of which a deed in quit- 
claim should be given of the site donated ; also that 
the property should never be mortgaged, nor its use 
in perpetuity for the purposes named in any way en- 
dangered. 

Returning to Chicago, Mr. Burroughs secured the 
acceptance of these conditions by representative Bap- 
tists, by whom also it was resolved that measures be 
immediately adopted for founding an institution of 
learning to be called the University of Chicago. A 
charter of incorporation was secured from the legis- 
lature of Illinois and a Board of Trustees chosen. 
Among these we may name the following : Hon. 



EDUCATION 283 

Stephen A. Douglas, who was also the first presi- 
dent of the Board ; Hon. Wm. B. Ogden, Charles 
Walker, L. D. Boone, m. d., William Jones, Sam- 
uel Hoard, Thomas Hoyne, Esq., J. A. Smith, R. 
H. Clarkson, D. d., an Episcopal clergyman ; J. H. 
Woodworth, J. Y. Scammon, T. B. Bryan, J. K. 
Burtis, Cyrus Bentley, Esq. ; as resident elsewhere 
than in Chicago : Senator J. B. Doolittle, of Racine, 
Wis. ; W. D. Bacon, Waukesha, Wis. Of others 
added later we may name : O. W. Barrett, C. N. 
Holden, W. W. Everts, d. d., George C. Walker, 
and E. Nelson Blake. 

Rev. J. B. Olcott, a man of marked efficiency in 
agency service, was secured to co-operate with Mr. 
Burroughs in the work of securing subscriptions to- 
ward endowment and for other purposes. The pro- 
posal for founding such an institution was received 
with marked favor, in both city and country, and by 
October 1, 1856, the subscriptions and pledges were 
reported at one hundred thousand dollars ; and in 
1857, when the grammar school of the university 
opened, the subscription stood at somewhat above two 
hundred thousand dollars. 

Instruction began in the basement of the Univer- 
salist church, on Wabash avenue. Prof. L. R. Satter- 
lee, who had acquired much distinction as principal 
of one of the leading public schools in Rochester, N. 
Y., had been invited to connect himself with this new 
enterprise, and under his special charge, as principal 



284 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

of the grammar school of the university, the work 
began. It soon became evident that the accommoda- 
tions provided could not be made adequate, and the 
attention of the trustees was directed to the necessity 
for securing better and permanent ones. The deed of 
gift besides, required in one of its conditions the erec- 
tion of a building at a specified cost and within a 
specified time. Unhappily, the financial condition of 
the country was very discouraging. Chicago and the 
West were feeling the strain in a degree certainly not 
less than was true in any other quarter. Although 
subscriptions had been obtained ample for the purpose 
of building, collections upon these, in such circum- 
stances, were found impracticable to any such extent 
as even a moderately planned building enterprise 
would require. 

The whole case as it stood, was laid before Mr. 
Douglas, then on a visit to Chicago. A loan upon 
the property could not, of course, be secured until 
a deed had been given, and the conditions required 
in order to secure this could not, under existing cir- 
cumstances, be met. Mr. Douglas generously waived 
the conditions so made and gave to the trustees a deed 
of the property, consenting also, as was understood, 
that a loan of twenty-five thousand dollars should 
be made, with a mortgage upon the university site 
as security. 

The circumstances, as here indicated, were believed 
to justify this measure. It was also quite in the line 



EDUCATION 285 

of what had become customary in the West, in the 
building of churches and for other purposes. It was 
held to be expedient and right to anticipate resources 
as likely to become more available in the rapid de- 
velopment going forward in many directions, and to 
meet deficiency of present means by loans based upon 
such hopes. The future was to teach many a sharp 
and salutary lesson in this regard, but the policy we 
indicate was deemed at the time a safe one, even by 
far-sighted men. The University of Chicago was 
destined to be perhaps the greatest sufferer of all ; 
but its policy was by no means an exceptional one. 
A loan accordingly of twenty-five thousand dollars 
was secured from the Union Mutual Life Insurance 
Company of Maine, and with this a building was 
erected, afterward known as the south wing of the 
group as planned. The corner-stone was laid on the 
fourth of July, 1857, Senator Douglas presiding, a 
large concourse of people from city and country being 
present. There were addresses by Mr. Douglas, by 
Eev. A. J. Joslyn, of Elgin, Hon. I, 1ST. Arnold, 
Rev. Robert Boyd, then pastor of the Edina Place 
Baptist Church, Chicago, and by others. In the 
autumn of 1858 the new building was occupied In 
1866 the large and handsome central building was 
erected, while Rev. M. Gr. Clark held the position of 
financial secretary, additional loans to a considerable 
amount for the purpose being necessary, in addition 
to all that could be made available in other ways. 



286 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The presidency of the university had been offered 
very soon after its incorporation to Mr. Burroughs. 
Although the vote was unanimous, and the position an 
inviting one in many ways, it was his own judgment 
that some man in the denomination, known through- 
out the country as an educator, should be secured if 
possible. Correspondence with such gentlemen at the 
East, and personal visits to some of them, proving 
unavailing, Mr. Burroughs finally accepted the presi- 
dency and entered upon its duties. The term of 
eighteen years during which he held that office were 
years of fierce ordeal for other interests as well as for 
those committed to his care. Two or three years after 
the university had fully entered upon its work came 
the Civil War, preceded by growing agitations which 
almost wholly preoccupied the public mind. While 
the effects of the war were still much felt, Chicago 
was burned well-nigh to the ground by the great fire 
of 1871. Among those who suffered most heavily 
were men who had been, and still were, the main 
reliance of the university. In the meantime it had 
been found difficult, perhaps impossible, to even meet 
the interest upon loans made, while demand for en- 
largement of teaching force in the university made 
the current expense each year harder to obtain. The 
history which followed need not and cannot here be 
narrated in detail. It was a struggle against the in- 
evitable, with division in the councils of the univer- 
sity such as is by no means unexampled in like cir- 



EDUCATION 287 

cumstances. The issue, so far, was the resignation of 
Dr. Burroughs in 1875, after a service in the presi- 
dency of some eighteen years. A review of that 
period now, after such a lapse of time since the events 
described, impresses one acquainted with the facts, 
that Dr. Burroughs had proved himself an instructor, 
a leader, and an administrator of marked ability, of 
courage, patience, and resource. The affection and 
honor in which his memory has been since cherished 
by those who were his pupils, and by those who knew 
him in such relations as to reveal the man as he truly 
was, are personal tributes whose emphasis is not to be 
doubted. 

Pending the election of a successor, the duties of 
the presidency were discharged by President G. W. 
Northrup, of the theological seminary. With the 
opening of the next university year, Dr. Lemuel 
Moss was chosen to the office and entered at once 
upon service. In the class-room, in the general 
administration of university affairs, on public occa- 
sions when his power as a thinker and an orator had 
opportunity to become known, and in the relations of 
society and of personal friendship, Dr. Moss won 
during the year of his presidency a degree of honor 
and esteem which made his retirement from the office 
at the end of the year matter of deep regret. An ad- 
justment had in the meantime been made by which 
Dr. Burroughs became chancellor of the university, 
charged especially with its financial administration. 



288 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

During the year following the retirement of Dr. 
Moss, ex-Senator J. R. Doolittle, of Racine, was 
associated with Dr. Burroughs, in the position of act- 
ing president. The choice of the Board finally fixed 
upon Hon. Alonzo Abernethy, who had studied at the 
university, and after a conspicuous service in the Civil 
War had filled with honor the office of superintendent 
of public instruction in the State of Iowa. Mr. Aber- 
nethy held the presidency during two years, facing 
the difficulties of the situation, which had already 
become well-nigh hopeless, in a manly spirit, and dis- 
charging with recognized ability the duties of the 
office. At the end of two years Mr. Abernethy re- 
signed the presidency. Dr. Burroughs also resigned 
as chancellor, and that office was abolished. 

Upon Mr. Abernethy' s resignation Dr. Galusha 
Anderson, the pastor of the Second Baptist Church, 
Chicago, in 1878, accepted the presidency. In the 
circumstances as they then stood, this was on his part 
an act of no small courage and self-sacrifice. Look- 
ing back, now, upon the situation as it then was, one 
can see that success in efforts to save the university 
was not to be hoped for. The complications and dif- 
ficulties, especially in the loss of public confidence, 
were more formidable than was even then apparent. 
Dr. Anderson did all that man could do toward a re- 
covery to the university of the confidence and sym- 
pathy which, not with entire justice it must be said, 
had been withdrawn. He gained support in meeting 






EDUCATION 289 

present emergencies on the part of leading citizens of 
Chicago, and their counsel in the difficult circum- 
stances which from time to time arose. Early in his 
administration he effected the payment of a floating 
debt of ten thousand dollars, fully re-establishing the 
credit of the university in the city, and covering 
without accrument of arrears the current expense of 
each year. While discharging with great ability the 
customary duties of his office, he led in all measures 
for the relief of the existing embarrassment. Nego- 
tiations with the creditor, however, proved unavail- 
ing, the financial pressure grew steadily worse, an 
effort to secure better terms of adjustment through 
appeal to one of the courts of law resulted in a fore- 
closure of the mortgage, in which the ownership of 
the property passed to the creditor. Dr. Anderson 
then resigned his presidency, after a service of seven 
years and eight months, leaving the conviction in 
the minds of those best acquainted with the facts 
that all which sagacity, resolution, heroic persistence 
in the face of hopeless obstacles could do, had been 
done to save the university to the denomination and 
to the cause of good education. Emphatic mention 
should be made of the educational work of the uni- 
versity, particularly in these its last days. Sustained 
in the department by such men as Profs. Howe, Ol- 
son, Stuart, Riggs, and Butler, Dr. Anderson was 
privileged to see the classes always fully maintained 
and indeed much advanced. Quite one-half as 



290 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

many men were graduated during his administra- 
tion as in all the previous years of the university — 
one year a class of twenty-six, many of them highly 
superior men. 

It should be said that the measures adopted by Dr. 
Anderson in the final emergency had been under ad- 
vice of such members of the Board of Regents as he 
could get together for consultation. This was a body 
provided for in the charter, and composed of State 
officials and other eminent citizens, and was charged 
especially with the care of the property. The re- 
gents were proper persons to advise in the case, and 
under their advice President Anderson acted in the 
steps taken by him with a view to bring the indebted- 
ness of the university into such a shape as that there 
might be reasonable hope of its discharge. 

Although the university site and buildings had now 
become the property of the creditor, permission of 
continued occupancy was allowed. Dr. Geo. C. 
Lorimer, of the Immanuel Baptist Church, Chicago, 
was invited to the presidency, and to leadership in a 
fresh effort to save the university. He could not, 
however, leave his pastorate, and after a year of such 
service in the presidency as other duties would per- 
mit, he declined further incumbency. Consultation 
was then had with Dr. W. R. Harper, at the time 
Professor of Hebrew and New Testament Interpre- 
tation in the Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, 
with the thought of making still one more effort to 



EDUCATION 291 

enlist friends in behalf of the doomed institution. 
Though offered the presidency by the trustees with 
this thought, he found it necessary to decline. As 
the time drew near for the university to open, in the 
autumn of 1887, the trustees decided that they could 
not longer assume responsibility for the expenses of 
instruction. The faculty of the university opened 
an academy, in the hope of holding some of the stu- 
dents till there should be further developments. At 
the end of the year they decided to seek other posi- 
tions, and the University of Chicago finally ceased 
to exist. 

Early in the history of the university a building 
for an astronomical observatory had been erected by 
Hon. J. Y. Scammon, attached to the main central 
edifice. The building cost thirty thousand dollars, 
and bore the name of the Dearborn Observatory, 
after the family name of Mr. Scammon' s wife. The 
astronomical instruments were purchased by an as- 
tronomical society in Chicago, organized for the pur- 
pose under the leadership of Hon. Thomas Hoyne 
and other gentlemen. To this society the instruments 
belonged, and some time after the failure of the uni- 
versity became the property of the Northwestern 
University, Methodist, at Evanston. A law school 
was also established at an early date and for many 
years was prosperously carried on, with Hon. Henry 
Booth as dean. This, upon the final issue of the his- 
tory we have narrated, passed also to other hands. 



292 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX WESTERN STATES 

Only for what we have yet to tell of educational en- 
terprise with Chicago as a center, there would be no 
comfort for the sorrow with which it must be said, 
that of the stately building so long occupied by the 
University of Chicago there now remains a not so 
much as one stone upon another." 

One other college in the State of Illinois remains 
for mention in this history. In 1867, on Christmas 
day of that year, the Ewing High School was opened 
at Ewing, in Southern Illinois. The first principal 
was Rev. John Washburn, D. D. Six and a half 
years later, in May, 1874, a collegiate department 
was added, and the institution has since been known 
as Ewing College. Dr. Washburn remained as presi- 
dent until 1890, with brief intervals of cessation, 
during which Rev. J. W. Patton, 1875-1876, and 
Rev. Wm. Shelton, d. d., 1877-1880 occupied the 
position. Dr. Washburn at the close of these periods 
resumed the incumbency, and in the second instance 
continued in office until his final retirement in 1890. 

At the date last named Rev. J. A. Leavitt, who 
had been for some years in the Sunday-school ser- 
vice of the American Baptist Publication Society, in 
Illinois, and previous to this had rendered good ser- 
vice in important pastorates, was chosen president. 
From the time of this change the college dates a 
more rapid growth, its value becoming more highly 
appreciated by the people of Southern Illinois, in 
whose interest it had been principally founded — 



EDUCATION 293 

pupils multiplying, and means of enlargement being 
supplied. 

The college has at present, 1894-95, five buildings, 
three of them being occupied in its class-room work. 
Of these three the first was erected in 1869, the 
second in 1874, and the third, named Willard Hall, 
in honor of Captain Willard, a generous friend of 
the college, in 1891-93. One of the older of the 
five buildings was, in 1893-94, changed to a three- 
story dormitory for boys, receiving the name Wake- 
man Hall, as a tribute of gratitude to Mrs. S. A. 
Wakeman, whose liberal gifts had aided much in 
promoting the growth and usefulness of the institu- 
tion. 

A cottage for the occupancy of young ladies was 
also planned in the summer of 1894, the means for 
the purpose being chiefly furnished by Mr. Wm. H. 
Hudelson, whose name the building was to bear. 

In 1893 the college received from Mrs. Wakeman 
means for making large additions to its chemical, 
physiological, and philosophical apparatus, with a 
fine geological cabinet, " containing thousands of 
specimens, collected from all parts of the world.' ' 

The college has three libraries, the college refer- 
ence library, and two others belonging to the socie- 
ties. 

Ewing College is an example of the valuable ser- 
vice in education done by the smaller institutions, 
with limited means, yet with methods of teaching 



294 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEKN STATES 

judiciously adopted. The region of country in the 
midst of which it stands is mainly agricultural, and 
the students come largely from the farms and are 
accordingly less eager for the kind of education 
which fits for professional life. The college is all 
the more a beneficent instrument in promoting gene- 
ral culture and inspiring truer ideals of life and 
duty. Its resources in the matter of endowment are 
limited, yet there is reason to believe that better 
times are awaiting it in this particular. 






CHAPTER XIII 

EDUCATION COLLEGIATE 

II 

rpHE States of the West, in common with other 
-*- sections of the country, were interested in an 
educational measure, entered upon in the year 1868, 
which looked toward large results. Reference is 
made to the American Baptist Educational Commis- 
sion, organized in New York in the year named, 
with Rev. Sewall S. Cutting, d. d., as its secretary 
and chief executive. 

The movement originated with Dr. Cutting, and 
had in view objects of great importance. One of 
these was, that the commission might serve as a me- 
dium of communication between needy institutions 
of learning, or those engaged in the founding of such 
institutions, and men of wealth, or others, whose in- 
terest it might be thought desirable to enlist in their 
behalf. Still another purpose was that of counsel 
with those in charge of colleges and schools already 
existing, especially in the newer States, where counsel 
should be needed and sought, with a view to the pro- 
motion of educational harmony and co-operation. 

Among the methods adopted was the appointment 

295 



296 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

of advisory committees, one of which was located in 
the West, at Chicago, and much was accomplished 
through this agency in behalf of the purposes named. 
Perhaps the most important result was the enlarged 
and more intelligent interest awakened upon the sub- 
ject of education in general, with conviction of the 
importance of larger outlay in this behalf, especially 
on new fields. Conventions in which representative 
men from different parts of the country participated, 
were held in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Chicago, 
with resulting effects whose full benefit was to be 
realized later. 

The Educational Commission failed of permanency 
as a distinctive organization. The general idea repre- 
sented in it, however, found embodiment some years 
later in another, upon a different plan, the American 
Baptist Education Society, the creation of which, in 
1888, was an event of great significance for the 
West, as for other sections of the republic. 

In the previous year the subject of such an organi- 
zation was brought to the attention of representa- 
tives of the denomination at the anniversary of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society, held at 
Minneapolis. The conception of the measure orig- 
inated with H. L. Morehouse, d. d., then secretary of 
the Home Mission Society. His service in that office 
had frequently brought to his attention deficiencies of 
denominational methods in founding and building 
institutions of learning, more especially in the newer 






EDUCATION 297 

States. Such institutions, he found, were sometimes 
originated without sufficient regard to conditions es- 
sential to success, and with very inadequate ideas as 
to what is necessary to the making of a university or 
college, or even of an academy of the needful sort. 
Wiser plans in the founding of new schools, and 
larger means for the building of such schools and 
the relief and enlargement of those already in exist- 
ence, he saw to be imperative. After consultation 
with others impressed like himself with these consid- 
erations, he brought the subject to the attention of the 
Home Mission Society at its anniversary as above 
noted. At his suggestion a committee of seven, Dr. 
Morehouse being made the chairman, was appointed 
to have the matter under advisement and to take 
such steps as might be found judicious as preliminary 
to the organization of a National Baptist Education 
Society, should such a measure prove to be advisable. 
As the question of such an organization came be- 
fore the denomination in discussion of the denomina- 
tional journals, it was found that there was some di- 
vision of opinion upon the subject. It was doubted 
if it would be wise to increase the number of organi- 
zations appealing for funds to carry on their respec- 
tive enterprises. Other grounds of objection were 
urged, and when the national anniversaries met at 
Washington in 1888, it seemed for a while doubtful 
if the new movement could gain denominational en- 
dorsement. 



298 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The committee appointed at Minneapolis, of which 
Dr. Morehouse was chairman, had secured a place 
upon the general programme for a convention in this 
behalf. Addresses were secured from President Wel- 
ling, of Columbian University, who presided ; Dr. 
Geo. C. Lorimer, of Chicago, Dr. T. T. Eaton, of 
Louisville, and Dr. Morehouse himself, with papers 
on assigned topics by Eev. Walter Scott, of New 
York, and Rev. O. P. Eaches, of New Jersey. In 
these addresses the subject was so fully and convinc- 
ingly opened as to command a vote in favor of im- 
mediate organization, which was accordingly effected, 
under the name of the American Baptist Education 
Society. Hon. Francis Way land, ll. d., of New 
Haven, was chosen president of the society ; L. B. 
Ely, of Missouri, and Hon. George A. Pillsbury, of 
Minnesota, vice-presidents ; A. G. Lawson, D. D., of 
Massachusetts, recording secretary ; and Rev. F. T. 
Gates, of Minnesota, corresponding secretary. On 
the Board of Trustees the several States of the 
Union were represented, those from the West being 
C. L. Colby, Wisconsin ; W. H. Doane, Ohio ; J. A. 
Smith and E. E. Nelson Blake, Illinois ; M. S. Smal- 
ley, Kansas ; G. J. Burchett, Oregon ; C. C. Bowen, 
Michigan. 

In the choice of a secretary, upon whom so much 
of responsibility and labor must devolve, the Board 
of the society was fortunate in securing for that ser- 
vice, Rev. F. T. Gates, the pastor of the Central 



EDUCATION 299 

Baptist Church, Minneapolis. Mr. Gates had sig- 
nalized in various ways his interest in education, and 
had already achieved a most gratifying success in 
securing from the denomination of Minnesota the 
sum of fifty thousand dollars toward the endowment 
of Pillsbury Academy in that State. He had been 
from the first in full sympathy with the new move- 
ment in education, and on his acceptance, after due 
consideration, of the office tendered him, entered 
upon service with characteristic zeal, and with a 
measure of success in stimulating and aiding efforts 
to place institutions in all sections of the country 
upon better foundations, which illustrated in the best 
manner the value of the new denominational agency 
thus created. 

Mention is here due, in a very particular manner, 
of the name of Mr. John D. Rockefeller. This 
gentleman, interested in all that concerns denomina- 
tional prosperity in whatever direction, and in the 
cause of religion and philanthropy in general, had 
not failed of due attention to the condition of col- 
leges and schools, under the auspices of the denomi- 
nation, in various parts of the country. He had in- 
terested himself in particular in what had come to 
his attention of the need for enlarged plans in educa- 
tion, and of wider scope in courses of instruction. 
It was his wish that somewhere in the country, at 
the most fitting point, a Baptist university might 
grow up, in which the university idea in education 



300 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

should be fully realized. In this he found much 
intelligent sympathy, both in New York City and 
elsewhere, although some difference of opinion ap- 
peared as to the most fitting location for such an 
enterprise. 

Mr. Rockefeller's interest in education, however, 
was not limited to any one plan of procedure, or to 
education itself in its more advanced forms. Enter- 
ing fully into the plans of the new organization, he 
supplied it in the first year of its history with the 
sum of one hundred thousand dollars as a basis for 
its operations, continuing his generosity to a like 
amount in years following. From resources thus 
supplied help was afforded to institutions, especially 
in the West and South, embarrassed in their work 
through deficiency of means, the sums granted being 
conditioned upon the raising through efforts of each 
institution on its own part of a certain amount named 
as a condition of the grant. In this way institutions, 
some of them almost on the verge of bankruptcy, 
were stimulated to fresh exertion, their friends rallied 
in a new spirit of enterprise and educational zeal, 
while the sums bestowed were sufficient, in many 
cases, together with what was raised in addition, to 
place in a condition for renewed growth and enlarge- 
ment schools and colleges, hope for which had almost 
died out. Into this service Mr. Gates, the secretary, 
entered with a spirit of sympathy in behalf of strug- 
gling interests, with tact in discriminating claims 



EDUCATION 301 

which should be recognized, and needs which were 
real, and in all ways marked executive ability, which 
fully met the high expectation of those by whom he 
had been called into this responsible and delicate 
service. 

Meantime the subject of some large enterprise in 
university education had not been allowed to slum- 
ber. It was thought by some that the commercial 
metropolis of the country should itself be made the 
seat of such an institution. Many others felt that a 
site more inland, considering the continental extent 
of the field to be provided, would be preferable. 
There were many, also, who strongly felt that what 
had been lost in Chicago, after so many years of 
struggle, sacrifice, and educational success, should be 
recovered and restored. The. advantages of a loca- 
tion at a national center like Chicago, were also 
pressed by friends of such a location. Mr. Rocke- 
feller's own preference seemed upon the whole to 
favor Chicago, provided there could be evidence af- 
forded that an enterprise of the nature proposed 
would there be in such a manner seconded as to in- 
sure its success. 

Dr. William R. Harper, for several years pro- 
fessor of Hebrew and Old Testament interpretation 
in the Baptist Union Theological Seminary at Mor- 
gan Park, but at the time here in view, professor of 
the Semitic languages and literature in Yale Uni- 
versity, from the first interested himself in the pro- 



302 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

posed new enterprise in university provision. He 
was much in Mr. Rockefeller's confidence while the 
subject was under consideration. His own views 
favored Chicago. The question was brought to a 
test at the first anniversary of the American Baptist 
Education Society at Boston, in May, 1889. An 
offer was there made public, on behalf of Mr. Rocke- 
feller, to give the sum of six hundred thousand dol- 
lars toward one million dollars for the founding and 
endowment of a college at Chicago, provided the 
needed additional sum of four hundred thousand 
dollars should be secured in that city. A proposal 
like that was unexampled in the educational history 
of American Baptists, and was welcomed by the au- 
dience present on the occasion with unbounded en- 
thusiasm. 

Those present from Chicago, immediately upon 
their return, called a meeting of gentlemen known 
to be favorable to the proposed enterprise. A Col- 
lege Committee of thirty-six persons was chosen. 
Rev. T. W. Goodspeed, d. d., for many years the 
efficient financial secretary of the theological semi- 
nary at Morgan Park, was appointed to act with 
Mr. Gates in the effort to secure the required sub- 
scription. These two gentlemen entered upon the 
service with zeal and with extraordinary tact and 
ability. When the society met at Chicago for its 
anniversary in May, 1890, they were able to an- 
nounce that the subscription of four hundred thou- 



EDUCATION 303 

sand dollars in interest-bearing notes, was full, and 
had been accepted as satisfactory by Mr. Rockefeller. 
The occasion of this announcement was again one of 
great enthusiasm, with a stimulus to fresh educa- 
tional effort felt in every part of the country. 

On the evening of the day on which this an- 
nouncement was made, a meeting of the Education 
Society, which thronged the great hall of the Audi- 
torium in Chicago, was held, at which Hon. Francis 
Wayland, president of the Society, presided, and 
which was addressed by representatives of the sev- 
eral societies : Rev. H. L. Morehouse, d. d., the 
Home Mission Society ; Rev. J. N. Murdock, D. D., 
the Missionary Union ; Rev. Wayland Hoyt, d. d., 
the Publication Society ; Rev. F. T. Gates, the Edu- 
cation Society ; while Dr. P. S. Henson, in a closing 
address, represented the Baptist churches and citi- 
zens of Chicago. 

Mr. Rockefeller's munificent gift of six hundred 
thousand dollars contemplated, for the present, simply 
the endowment of a college. It was given, how- 
ever, on expectation of a speedy university organ- 
ization. This enlargement of the plan was imme- 
diately entered upon, and with a view to its realiza- 
tion an act of incorporation for such a university 
under the name of the "University of Chicago," 
was secured from the Illinois State legislature. 
The Board of the former university, not having as 
yet. been dissolved,, took the necessary steps to pre- 



304 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

vent a collision of names, and then finally ad- 
journed, it being provided that the former institu- 
tion should thenceforth be known as " The Old Uni- 
versity of Chicago." The incorporators named in 
the charter as now obtained, were : John D. Rocke- 
feller, E. Nelson Blake, Marshall Field, Fred T. 
Gates, Francis E. Hinckley, and Thomas W. Good- 
speed. Mr. Blake was chosen president of the 
Board of trustees in its organization ; Mr. Martin 
A. Ryerson, vice-president ; Mr. Charles L. Hutchin- 
son, treasurer; and Thomas W. Goodspeed, D. D., 
secretary. The trustees numbered twenty-one in 
all ; of Baptists, E. Nelson Blake, Herman H. Kohl- 
saat, William R. Harper, Alonzo K. Parker, Fred 
A. Smith, Francis E. Hinckley, Edward Goodman, 
George C. Walker, Andrew McLeish, Henry A. Rust, 
Joseph M. Bailey, John W. Midgley, Elmer L. Cor- 
thell, Charles W. Needham, were chosen. Of gen- 
tlemen not living in Chicago are to be named, Charles 
C. Bowen, of Detroit, and George A. Pillsbury, of 
Minneapolis. Members not Baptists were, Martin 
A. Ryerson, Ferd.W. Peck, Eli B. Felsenthal, and 
Daniel L. Shorey, The denominational proportion 
here was in accordance with a provision in the char- 
ter, that two-thirds of the trustees and the president 
of the university should always be Baptists, thus 
securing the control of the university to the denom- 
ination, while in no other way recognizing denomi- 
national or religious distinctions. 



EDUCATION 305 

Events from the beginning, as well as the decided 
choice of all interested in the fortunes of the new 
enterprise, had pointed to Dr. William R. Harper 
as president of the university. One of the first 
acts of the trustees was to elect him to this office. 
The magnitude of the undertaking and the respon- 
sibilities of the position were fully realized by Dr. 
Harper. Yet his interest in it and the prospect thus 
opened for realizing ideals of his own in university 
education, overcame his hesitation. The position 
was accepted and he entered at once upon his duties. 

The choice of financial secretary was as much a 
matter settled beforehand as that of a president had 
been. Dr. T. W. Goodspeed's record during sev- 
eral years in a like position at Morgan Park, had 
demonstrated his unusual qualifications for service of 
this nature. From the moment of the initiation of 
this new enterprise, he had been evidently the pre- 
destined leader of it, so far as concerned provision 
of means to carry it on. In the organization of the 
Board of trustees and the inauguration of the work 
no second choice for the place was thought of by 
any one. This service was but the continuation of 
that in which, in company with Mr. Gates, Dr. 
Goodspeed had been already engaged. In the prose- 
cution of it abundant opportunity was furnished for 
the exercise of sagacity, energy, and resource, and 
in all these respects his endowment for the position 
was more fully demonstrated year by year. 



306 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The question as to what part of the city, or its 
vicinity, should be chosen as a site for the university 
was finally decided in favor of a location near the 
southern limit between Washington and Jackson 
Parks, and fronting upon the Midway Plaisance, 
connecting the two. A block and a half of ground, 
valued at one hundred and twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars, was given for the purpose by Mr. Marshall 
Field, of Chicago. Two and a half additional blocks 
were purchased later, for two hundred and eighty- 
five thousand five hundred dollars, thus securing a 
site twenty-four acres in extent. The first building, 
to be named Cobb Hall, in honor of Mr. Silas B. 
Cobb, of Chicago, who gave for the purpose the sum 
of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was be- 
gun in November, 1891, and on the first of October, 
1892, the university began there its work of instruc- 
tion. In the meantime great additions had been 
made to its resources. In September, 1890, Mr. 
Rockefeller added one million dollars to his original 
gift; in February, 1892, a second million; in De- 
cember of the same year a third million ; making a 
sum total of donation from this source of three mil- 
lion six hundred thousand dollars. Munificent gifts 
had also been made in Chicago for the erection of 
needed buildings : One hundred thousand dollars by 
Mr. Marshall Field ; two hundred thousand dollars, 
which was increased to two hundred and thirty-five 
thousand dollars, as the building went on, by Mr. 



EDUCATION 307 

S. A. Kent, for a fully equipped chemical laboratory ; 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, as already 
mentioned, by Mr. Silas B. Cobb ; one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, which became two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars, by Mr. Martin A. Ryer- 
son, for a physical laboratory ; one hundred and 
thirty thousand dollars, by Mr. George C. Walker, 
for a museum ; sixty thousand dollars, by Mrs. N, 
S. Foster ; fifty thousand dollars, by Mr. Henry A. 
Rust ; fifty thousand dollars, by Mrs. Henrietta 
Snell ; fifty thousand dollars, by Mrs. Mary A. 
Beecher ; fifty thousand dollars, by Mrs. Elizabeth 
C. Kelly. These gifts were all for the erection of 
needed buildings. 

At the opening of the second year of the univer- 
sity, the following buildings were completed and oc- 
cupied : Cobb Lecture Hall, being a general recita- 
tion and administrative building, and including that 
which had been joined to it for occupancy of the 
divinity school, used also as a dormitory for gradu- 
ate students ; Kent Chemical Laboratory ; Snell 
Hall, a dormitory for undergraduate men ; Beecher 
and Kelly Halls for women ; the Walker Museum, 
and a temporary structure for the general library, 
the gymnasium for men, and one also for women. 
Ryerson Physical Laboratory and Foster Hall were 
also nearly completed ; there being in all nine spa- 
cious buildings erected at a cost of one million one 
hundred and five thousand dollars ; including site, 



308 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

one million three hundred and ninety thousand dol- 
lars. The plans of a building to be called Rust 
Hall were also in course of preparation. 

In the removal of the buildings from the campus 
of the Old University of Chicago, the astronomical 
apparatus had been secured by the Northwestern 
University at Evanston. The provision of an ob- 
servatory and the needful astronomical equipment 
for the new university was undertaken by Mr. 
Charles T. Yerkes, of Chicago, the location being 
fixed by the Board of trustees, at Lake Geneva, Wis., 
some thirty miles from Chicago ; the location at a 
point so distant being determined by the necessity of 
providing, against all contingencies in years to come, 
a pure atmosphere as a condition of successful astro- 
nomical observations. A library, numbering some 
one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, offered for 
sale at Berlin, Germany, had been purchased with 
money received in gifts for this especial purpose. To 
this were added the library of the Old University of 
Chicago, and that of the theological seminary at 
Morgan Park, making a total, with books otherwise 
secured by gift or purchase, of two hundred and 
thirty-two thousand volumes. 

The university opened with all its departments 
complete, including post-graduate students in all lines 
of instruction, the divinity school, the academic and 
university colleges, each with a course of two years, 
and the academy located at Morgan Park. Of the 



EDUCATION 309 

transfer of the theological seminary to the university 
as its divinity school, and of the establishment of the 
academy, we speak elsewhere. 

The faculty of the university, at the opening of its 
second year, numbered all told, one hundred and 
thirty-five ; students in all departments numbered 
nearly one thousand ; volumes in the several libraries, 
two hundred and thirty-two thousand. These figures 
nearly represent also the university status at the open- 
ing of the first year, October 1, 1892. Upon these 
faculties were many distinguished men, and the work 
in all departments was entered upon with extraordi- 
nary enthusiasm. The organizing genius of the 
president, seconded as he was by a Board of trustees 
characterized by administrative ability of the highest 
class, was signally shown in the completeness, the 
adequacy, and the working efficiency of the univer- 
sity, in all departments, from the very first day. 

If limitations of space permitted, there would be 
much to say of those capable and faithful men who, 
during the period covered thus far by this part of our 
history, had been engaged as educators in the col- 
leges whose opening record is now before the reader. 
Though serving under circumstances trying to men 
with high ideals, and while some years necessarily 
passed before the Western college could take rank 
with institutions of like grade in the older States, the 
work they did as instructors was of a superior kind. 
Some of them were, as scholars and as authors, men 



310 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEKN STATES 

of national reputation. More lucrative and more 
conspicuous positions might easily have been secured 
by them elsewhere. They chose, however, to pledge 
their reputation and their fortunes to those interests 
in the younger States which so much needed the kind 
of fostering they could give, and they had their re- 
ward in the usefulness and distinction achieved by 
their pupils in all those spheres of life where trained 
capacity is most needful and most sure of recognition. 
We cannot pass from this part of our subject without 
a degree, at least, of personal detail, added to what 
has already appeared. 

The list of presidents of Granville College, now 
Denison University, opens with the name of Prof. 
John Pratt, under whom, in 1831, the beginning was 
made. Dr. Jonathan Going, 1837, who continued in 
service until his death in 1844, followed, devoting 
himself mainly, however, to outside interests of the 
college and to theological instruction, the main charge 
being otherwise committed for a time to Prof. John 
Stevens, of the faculty. In 1847, Rev. Silas Bailey, 
D. D., was chosen president, continuing in service 
until 1852, when he accepted a similar post of ser- 
vice at Franklin College, Ind. A man of marked 
ability, he is to be named with honor among those 
who have left lasting impressions on the educational 
history of the West. In 1853, Rev. Jeremiah Hall, 
D. D., became president. It was under his presidency 
that the name of the college, in honor of one of its 



EDUCATION 311 

chief benefactors, was changed to that of Denison 
University. In 1863 he was succeeded by Rev. 
Samuel Talbot, d. d., a native of Ohio, and a gradu- 
ate of Granville College under President Bailey. Dr. 
Talbot was called to the presidency from the pastor- 
ate of the First Baptist Church in Dayton. During 
the ten years of his presidency he won high distinc- 
tion, personally, as a thinker and an instructor, and 
for the university under his care an honored place 
among American schools of its own grade. His 
death, in 1873, at the early age of forty-five, was 
deeply lamented. 

Dr. Talbot was succeeded, in 1874, by Rev. E. 
Benjamin Andrews. The distinguished career of Dr. 
Andrews may be said to have begun in the service 
rendered in this presidency. During the five years 
of his incumbency he gained for himself a record in 
the training imparted to his pupils, and in the gen- 
eral administration of the university, which must 
always remain notable in its history. In 1879 Dr. 
Andrews, becoming a professor in Newton Theologi- 
cal Institution, Rev. A. Owen, d. d., was called to the 
presidency, serving with recognized efficiency until 
1887, when he was succeeded by Rev, Galusha An- 
derson, s. T. D., who remained in office until called, in 
1889, to the chair of homiletics in the theological 
seminary at Morgan Park, 111. Rev. D. B. Purin- 
ton, d. D., of West Virginia, was then called to the 
presidency, most worthily crowning this succession of 



312 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

men distinguished as educators, and in various other 
spheres of public service. 

In the early days of Shurtleff College, 1836—40, 
Prof. Washington Leverett who, with his brother, 
Prof. Warren Leverett, had early identified himself 
with Western work in education, served as the acting 
president. He was succeeded, in 1840, by Rev. Adiel 
Sherwood, D. d., who held the position until 1846, 
when, upon his resignation, Prof. Washington Lever- 
ett again became the acting president. In 1850 Rev. 
N. N". Wood, D. d., pastor of the Market Street Bap- 
tist Church, Zanesville, Ohio, a man of marked per- 
sonal character and fine intellectual gifts, was called 
to the presidency, remaining in office until 1855. In 
the following year he was succeeded by Rev. Daniel 
Read, ll. d., pastor of the Second Baptist Church, 
St. Louis, who remained in service fourteen years. 
During his incumbency a theological department was 
connected with the college on the basis of a liberal 
endowment by Mr. Elijah Gove, of Quincy, 111. 
Under Dr. Read's administration the college rose to 
a distinction among American colleges unattained 
before, entering fully upon that career of enlargement 
which still continues. In 1872 Rev. Adin A. Ken- 
drick, D. D., himself also at the time a pastor in St. 
Louis, was, upon Dr. Read's resignation, called to 
the presidency. During his incumbency of almost a 
quarter of a century — his resignation occurred in 
1894 — the courses of study in the college were much 



EDUCATION 313 

improved, important additions made to the faculty, 
the endowment fund was much increased, and new 
buildings were erected. The graduates of the college, 
in all parts of our own land and in foreign countries, 
are warmly attached to it — the best testimony of all 
to the efficiency and value of the instruction and the 
general training for service there received. 

In 1869, while Dr. Read was still president, young 
ladies were admitted to full matriculation in the col- 
lege, and they have since had free admission to all 
departments save that of theology. For several years 
the attendance of young women has stood at thirty- 
three per cent, of the whole. A building for their 
especial accommodation was erected, and as an ele- 
ment in the life of the college they have justified fully 
the principle of co-education. In 1876, the Centen- 
nial year, a highly important service was rendered 
the college by Rev. G. J. Johnson, d. d., in associa- 
tion with President Kendrick, in raising for it an 
endowment of one hundred thousand dollars, In 
1893 an addition of fifty thousand dollars was made, 
with the aid of the National Baptist Education Soci- 
ety in the sum of ten thousand dollars. The entire 
assets of the college are now placed at two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. 

Of incumbents of the presidency at Franklin Col- 
lege, Indiana, to the closing of the college at the 
outbreak of the Civil War, we have already spoken. 
During the interval elapsing from 1862 to 1869, 



314 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

although the college was closed, much educational 
movement was going forward in the State in the in- 
auguration of academical work at various points. 
Of this we speak more particularly in another place. 
In 1869 the Board of the college made extensive 
repairs upon the buildings and improvements in the 
grounds preparatory to a reopening. A faculty was 
appointed, and in the autumn of the year named, the 
college reopened under the acting presidency of Rev. 
W. T. Stott. Although there was but little endow- 
ment and " scant apparatus/' yet the college and its 
interests were much in the aifections of Baptists in 
the State, and students appeared in gratifying num- 
bers. Prof. H. L. Wayland, D. D., then of Kala- 
mazoo College, was chosen president, and the college 
steadily gained in its hold upon the people ; yet the 
effort to secure an endowment of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars proved to be premature, the income of 
the college fell short of its expenditure, and upon 
the resignation of President Wayland, in 1872, an- 
other suspension seemed for the moment likely to 
occur. Those who still clung to the college realized 
that the financial status must undergo a complete 
change. Accordingly, a joint-stock association was 
formed, over fifty thousand dollars in stock was sub- 
scribed, and in September, 1872, the college was re- 
opened, entering now a new career with better 
auspices : " Money was gathered, slowly but con- 
stantly. Old students and friends of the college 



EDUCATION 315 

showed enthusiasm, the faculty was gradually en- 
larged, a library was gathered, students multiplied, 
higher standards were resolved on, a fine geological 
collection was received, a live financial secretary, 
Eev. N. Carr, was secured, hope smiled, and the 
whole State was conquered to the college." l 

The writer of what we here quote does not men- 
tion the chief factor in this new order of things, the 
executive ability and other intellectual and personal 
qualities inhering in the headship of the college. 
Rev. W. T. Stott, who had earlier served as acting 
president, entered now upon full incumbency. He 
had graduated at the college in 1861, immediately 
after which he entered the army, taking part in fif- 
teen battles, at that of Cedar Creek being in com- 
mand of his regiment. Graduating in 1868 at the 
Rochester Theological Seminary, he served for one 
year as pastor of the Baptist church in Columbus, 
Ind., but in 1869 accepted the professorship of nat- 
ural science in the college, and the presidency in 
1872. From the state of financial depression spoken 
of at the dates here named, the college, under his 
administration, steadily rose, the financial secretary, 
Rev. N. Carr, efficiently co-operating with the presi- 
dent, until in April, 1893, the trustees could report 
assets to the amount of two hundred and ninety-two 
thousand dollars. In all the elements of a genuine 
educational force, the departments of instruction 
1 President Stott. 



316 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

had in the meantime kept pace with what was seen 
in the department of finance. 

The presidency of Kalamazoo College from the 
time of its incorporation as such in 1855, until 1864, 
was held by Dr. J. A. B. Stone. In that year John 
M. Gregory, ll. d., who had gained marked dis- 
tinction as superintendent of public instruction in 
the State of Michigan, became president, remaining 
in service as such until 1867. The following year 
Rev. Kendall Brooks, d. d., was chosen president. 
Dr. Brooks had previously held positions of distin- 
guished service as professor of mathematics and nat- 
ural philosophy in Waterville College, now Colby 
University, as pastor in Fitchburg, Mass., and as 
editor of the " National Baptist " in Philadelphia. 
Even as pastor he had interested himself much in 
educational affairs, holding membership in boards of 
education in the places of his residence. During 
the nearly twenty years of his incumbency at Kala- 
mazoo he was influential and useful in a high degree 
in general denominational affairs within the State, 
serving two years, 1877—79, as president of the 
Baptist State Convention. Upon his resignation of 
the college presidency, Rev. M. S. Wilcox, pastor of 
the Baptist church in Oswego, N. Y., was chosen 
president, remaining in service until 1891. Rev. 
Theo. Nelson, ll. d., a young man of great promise, 
whose early death was an occasion of universal sor- 
row, next became president for one year, being then 



EDUCATION 317 

compelled by failure of health to relinquish a post 
to which he had been called with high hopes of his 
usefulness there, but which a rapid decline of health 
would not allow him to retain. His death while yet 
in early life cut short a career which began with the 
most brilliant promise. In 1892 A. Gay lord 
Slocum, ll. D., who had held important positions in 
general educational service in the State of New 
York, was called to fill the vacancy so made, and to 
the gratification of all interested, accepted the charge. 
Under his administration the college, which since 
the resignation of President Brooks had suffered 
some decline, rapidly recovered lost ground, and re- 
sumed its career of prosperity as one of the best of 
Western colleges. 

Connected with the faculties of these several in- 
stitutions as instructors were men of whom we should 
be glad to write at greater length than present 
limits will allow. The man now longest in educa- 
tional service, as connected with any Western Bap- 
tist college, is perhaps Prof. Justus Bulkley, D. d., 
of Shurtleff College. Born in Livingston County, 
N. Y., in 1819, Prof. Bulkley has lived, since the 
age of seventeen, in Illinois. Educated at Shurtleff 
College in the early days of that institution, he 
served, first, as principal of its preparatory depart- 
ment. In 1849, ordained as pastor of Jersey ville, 
111., he was, after four years, elected professor of 
mathematics in Shurtleff College, serving until 1855, 



318 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

when he accepted a pastorate at Carrollton, thence 
returning to Shurtleff College after nine years, to 
become professor of church history in the theolog- 
ical department there. No man in the State has ever 
surpassed him in personal ascendency and in hold 
upon the denomination as college instructor, as a 
preacher of rare excellence, as a presiding officer in 
the State meetings, as a Christian scholar and brother 
beloved. 

During some twenty-seven years Prof. O. L. 
Castle was professor of rhetoric and belles lettres in 
Shurtleff College. Educated at Granville College, 
Ohio, he came to his professorship at Alton in 1853. 
We find him justly described as " a genial and cul- 
tured gentleman, a trained scholar in the classics 
and mathematics as well as in his special department, 
and a superior teacher." His death in 1890 was 
felt as a loss well-nigh irreparable. 

Early connected with Shurtleff College as profes- 
sor, first of belles lettres, later of languages, was E. 
Adkins, d. d. His connection with the college be- 
gan in 1847, his service there continuing nine years, 
at the end of which time he removed to New York, 
to become associated with others in the work of Bible 
revision. A pastorate at Brimfield, 111., came later, 
following which was a professorship in Marietta Col- 
lege, Ohio, held until failure of sight compelled final 
abandonment of the work which had filled so much 
of his long and useful life. 



EDUCATION 319 

Of Professors Washington and Warren Leverett 
we have already spoken. These gentlemen, twin 
brothers, born in 1805, were graduates of Brown 
University, in the class of 1832. Washington was 
for a time connected with the faculty of Columbian 
University at Washington, D. C. His brother, after 
some time spent in travel for benefit of health, came 
to Illinois, opening a school in Greenville. The 
founding of a college at Upper Alton drew him 
thither. His brother soon joined him there, and 
they continued in service in the college until 1868, 
a period of thirty-two years, at the end of which 
period both resigned, Prof. Warren Leverett dying 
in 1872, and his brother some years later. The de- 
partment of the former had been that of the an- 
cient languages, that of the latter mathematics and 
natural philosophy. 

Prof. Chas. L. Fairman, ll. d., has held contin- 
uously at Shurtleff College, since 1875, the chair of 
mathematics and the natural sciences. He had pre- 
viously, in 1868, occupied the same position in the 
college, but resigned in 1873 to become principal of 
Cook Academy, at Havana, N. Y. In 1875, as 
mentioned above, his permanent connection with the 
college began. Born at JSTorthfield, Mass., in 1823, 
a graduate of Waterville College, now Colby Uni- 
versity, in 1847, holding important positions as the 
head of academies in New England during some 
twenty years, he came to his professorship at Shurt- 



320 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

leff College prepared for superior service in the 
chair assigned him. " He is," writes one long asso- 
ciated with him, " a thorough student, an inspiring 
teacher, a noble Christian man. His work as in- 
structor, and his scholarly and Christian example, 
have been among the most important influences in 
molding the character of the sons of Shurtleff dur- 
ing the last twenty-five years." 

It was in the year 1868 that Prof. James Robinson 
Boise became connected with the University of Chi- 
cago, as professor of the Greek language and litera- 
ture. Graduating at Brown University in 1840, he 
served ten years there, at first as tutor and then as 
professor of Greek. In 1851, after a year spent in 
Germany, he accepted the professorship of Greek in 
the Michigan University at Ann Arbor, holding this 
position with signal honor and efficiency for seven- 
teen years. From 1868, during nine years, he served 
in the University of Chicago as its Greek professor, 
until 1877, when he accepted the chair of Greek and 
New Testament interpretation in the theological sem- 
inary at Morgan Park, resigning this professorship in 
1892, after a service of fifteen years. Dr. Boise took 
rank with the foremost Greek scholars and instructors 
of the United States, his annotated editions of classic 
works like Homer's " Iliad " and Xenophon's " An- 
abasis," and his notes on the Epistles of Paul, being 
held in great estimation by scholars and teachers. 
His eminence in his chosen sphere was recognized in 



EDUCATION 321 

the degree of doctor of philosophy conferred by the 
University of Tubingen, in Germany, of doctor of 
laws by the University of Michigan, and of doctor of 
divinity by Brown University. Upon his resignation 
of his professorship in the theological seminary, he 
was elected professor emeritus of New Testament 
Greek in the divinity school of the new University 
of Chicago. 

Prof. Wm. Mathews, ll. d., was professor of rhet- 
oric and English literature in the University of Chi- 
cago from 1862 till 1875. Born in Waterville, Me., 
in 1818, he had graduated at the college there in 
1835 at the age of seventeen. Making early choice 
of a literary career, although admitted to the bar after 
a course of legal study, he was first editor of a liter- 
ary periodical in Boston. Removing to Chicago in 
1856, he was soon chosen librarian of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, associating with this 
contributions to various journals. At the date named 
above he became connected with the University of 
Chicago, discharging the duties of his professorship 
with marked acceptance. In 1875 he resigned and 
has since devoted himself entirely to literature. His 
works upon themes connected with literature and life 
have had a circulation such as few American essayists 
have been able to command. In purity of English 
style, in finish of treatment for the themes discussed, 
in brilliancy of illustration, they eminently deserve 
the great popularity they have gained. 



322 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Prof. A. H. Mixer came from the University of 
Rochester to that of Chicago early in the history of 
the latter. His department at Rochester had been 
that of the modern languages and literature ; at Chi- 
cago he held the professorship of the Greek language 
and literature until about the year 1867, when he re- 
turned to Rochester. Besides excellent service as in- 
structor, he was much associated with Rev. M. G. 
Clarke and with Dr. "W. W. Everts in the work of 
securing funds, especially at the time the central 
building of the university was in process of erection, 
and also in the endowment of the chair of Greek in 
the university. Prof. A. J. Howe, during so many 
years professor of mathematics in the University of 
Chicago, came about 1863 to this position from Pen- 
field, N. Y., where he had become well known by his 
proficiency and skill in his chosen department. Suc- 
ceeding in this department Prof. A. J. Sawyer, he re- 
mained in service till the final closing of the univer- 
sity. In the department of Latin Prof. J. W. Stearns 
served many years with distinguished success ; in that 
of natural science, Prof. Bastin. Dr. Boise was suc- 
ceeded in the chair of Greek by Prof. Edward Olson, 
an accomplished scholar and teacher, of Norwegian 
parentage, whose social qualities as well as intellect- 
ual gifts endeared him to a large circle of admiring 
friends. His death at the burning of a building in 
Minneapolis, where he was calling upon a friend when 
the fire broke out, was long an occasion of sorrowful 



EDUCATION 323 

recollection, as one of those events to which it is so 
hard to become reconciled. 

Those who were members of the faculty of the old 
University of Chicago in its last years are entitled 
to especial honorable mention for the steadiness and 
fidelity with which they continued in service under 
circumstances most depressing, holding the students 
by dint of their cheerful courage and unflagging en- 
thusiasm in their work. The names of Howe, Olson, 
Stuart, Howes, Butler, Riggs, should ever be held in 
honor as among those of men faithful to the last in 
times that try men's souls. 

Denison University presents in its history a succes- 
sion of scholars and teachers, besides those already 
named, to which any institution in the land might 
point with pride. We shall name a few : Prof. F. 
O. Marsh was a man endowed with fine executive 
gifts along with those of the scholar and instructor. 
A graduate of the University of Michigan in 1845, 
doing academic work in that State and in Ohio until 
1848, a student at Granville first, after one year at 
Newton he became professor at Granville of natural 
science, then of mathematics and natural philosophy 
from 1854 to 1874; serving also as acting president, 
1873—75. In his latest years he was connected with 
Leland University, New Orleans, where he died on 
March 25, 1893. Marsena Stone, d.d., born in 1816, 
after many years of most useful pastoral service in 
the State of New York, in 1852-56 conducted the 



324 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

English course in Fairmount Theological Seminary, 
Cincinnati; in 1861-68 was principal of the Young 
Ladies' Institute at Granville, and subsequently much 
engaged in ministers' institutes, both in the North 
and in the South. His death occurred in February, 
1894, at the age of eighty-five. 

William Arnold Stevens, D. d., ll. d., son of Prof. 
John Stevens, was born in Granville in 1839, and 
graduated at Denison University in 1862. After a 
course of study in the Rochester Theological Seminary, 
a service of two years as classical tutor at Denison, 
and a year at Harvard as resident graduate, he be- 
came adjunct professor of Latin and Greek in Deni- 
son, and professor of Greek 1868-77, having spent 
a year and a half in study at Leipzig and Berlin, 
Germany. In 1877 he was chosen Trevor professor 
of biblical literature and New Testament exegesis in 
the theological seminary at Rochester, JST. Y. Prof. 
A. U. Thresher, a graduate of Amherst College in 
1865, was professor of rhetoric and English literature 
at Denison, 1867-92. Prof. L. E. Hicks, ph. d., 
was a graduate of Denison in 1868, having in the 
meantime served as lieutenant-colonel of Ohio volun- 
teers in 1861— 65. A year of special duty in natural 
sciences under Prof. Agassiz having been enjoyed, he 
became professor in that department at Denison, 
1870-84. In 1891 he accepted the professorship of 
geology in the University of Nebraska. After three 
years of service there he received and accepted an ap- 



EDUCATION 325 

pointment from the Missionary Union to Rangoon, 
Burma, for the organization of a college department 
in the Rangoon Theological Seminary. Prof. Charles 
Chandler, born in Pontiac, Mich., graduated in 1871 
at the university of that State, and in 1874, after two 
years of service at Denison as classical tutor, became 
professor of Latin there. Having spent one year in 
Germany, 1891-92, he was in the latter year elected 
professor of Latin in the new University of Chicago. 
Prof. R. S. Colwell, who became professor of 
the Greek language and literature at Denison in 
1877, was a native of Massachusetts, and a graduate 
of Brown University in 1870. After a course of 
study at Newton, one year, 1875—76, was spent in 
Europe. In 1891 he received the degree of d. d. 
from Brown University. Prof. C. L. Herrick, was 
born in Minneapolis in 1858, and graduated at the 
Minnesota State University in 1880, becoming at once 
instructor there in botany and zoology. One year, 
1881—82, was spent in Europe. Upon his return he 
was engaged during two years, 1883-85, upon the 
geological survey in Minnesota. Then, after three 
years' service in the University of Cincinnati, he 
became professor of biology at Denison. He was 
widely known as a contributor to scientific journals, 
and honored with memberships in numerous scien- 
tific associations. These are a few names among 
many deserving of special honor among Western 
educators as connected with Denison University. 



326 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Among Western educators of whom like special 
mention should be made, was Edward Olney, ll. d., 
during his later life professor of mathematics in 
the University of Michigan, but from 1853 to 1863, 
holding the same professorship at Kalamazoo. Born 
in Moreau, Saratoga Co., N. Y., in 1827, he began 
teaching at nineteen years of age, acquiring his own 
education very much in private study, prosecuted 
with singular industry and perseverance. In his con- 
nection with the institution at Kalamazoo he became 
widely and honorably known as a mathematician and 
an instructor, and after his acceptance of the profes- 
sorship at Ann Arbor, achieved a national reputation 
as an author of mathematical works, ranking with the 
best then in use. In his own denomination, as a Bap- 
tist, he was greatly valued as a devout Christian man, 
earnest in many forms of service, especially in Sunday- 
schools. During four years, 1875-79, he served as 
president of the Michigan Baptist State Convention. 
His death, in the meridian of his life and usefulness, 
was widely lamented as a loss not only to the denom- 
ination but to American education. 

Associated with Prof. Olney, and like minded 
with him in many things, was Professor Daniel Put- 
nam. Descended from a genuine Puritan stock, a 
native of New Hampshire, born in 1824, Prof. Put- 
nam fought his own way to an education, graduat- 
ing at Dartmouth College in 1851, and at a later 
date pursuing post-graduate studies at Amherst. 



EDUCATION 327 

Having gained for his wife the daughter of Eli B. 
Smith, D. d., for so many years president of the New 
Hampton Literary and Theological Institute, in 
New Hampshire, afterward removed to Fairfax, 
Va., he was for a time associated with him in the 
work of instruction, but in 1851 came to Michigan 
as professor of Latin in Kalamazoo College. After 
four years of service in this professorship, he became 
superintendent of schools in Kalamazoo, rendering 
important service in what had not before been at- 
tempted there, the organization of the schools in a 
working system. In 1865 he became again con- 
nected with the college, and upon the resignation of 
President J. M. Gregory served one year as the act- 
ing president. His subsequent educational service 
was as county superintendent of schools, and as prin- 
cipal of the State Normal School at Ypsilanti. 
Other spheres of service have been as mayor of 
Ypsilanti during two years, and as treasurer, subse- 
quently as president, of the Michigan Baptist State 
Convention. Valuable works upon the theory and 
practice of teaching have come from his pen, includ- 
ing, " An Elementary Psychology/' and a " Primer 
of Pedagogy " ; also " Twenty-five Years with the 
Insane," suggested by his connection during many 
years with the institution at Ypsilanti for that class 
of unfortunates, as its chaplain. 

The faculty of Franklin College, in 1894, gave 
to the divinity school at Chicago an accomplished 



328 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

scholar and able teacher in the person of Prof. J. 
W. Moncrief, who had served many years at Frank- 
lin as professor of history. Remaining upon the 
list of capable teachers were eight others, among 
whom we name Rev. Columbus Hall, vice-presi- 
dent and professor of the Greek language and 
literature ; Miss Rebecca Thompson, professor of 
mathematics, pure and applied ; David A. Owens, 
A. m., professor of biology ; Francis W. Brown, A. 
M., PH. D., professor of the Latin language and 
literature ; Wellington B. Johnson, A. m., professor 
of chemistry and physics. 



CHAPTER XIV 

EDUCATION THEOLOGICAL AND SECONDARY 



TAURING the early decades of the present cen- 
■U tury, Cincinnati was the most important com- 
mercial center of the West. In 1820 Chicago had 
not yet come into existence, St. Louis was a mere 
traders' settlement, and Louisville a modest town of 
some four thousand inhabitants. The traffic of the 
entire region drained by the Mississippi River and 
its tributaries was transported by water, and Cincin- 
nati was practically the only market in which the 
surplus products of the South and West could be 
exchanged for Eastern and Northern manufactures. 
The application of steam to river navigation in the 
decade between 1820 and 1830 greatly strengthened 
and developed these natural advantages. 1 

In these circumstances it was natural for those 
who had planted at this center the first Baptist 
church in the entire Northwest, had organized the 
first Association, the first State Convention, and the 

1 "Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Politi- 
cal Science," Twelfth Series, I., II. "The Cincinnati Southern 
Railway, a Study in Municipal Activity," by J. H. Hollander, 
Fellow in Economics, Johns Hopkins University. 

329 



330 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

first Education Society, and had led the way in direct 
measures for creating institutions of higher learning, 
should feel the obligations of leadership in denomi- 
national enterprises in whatever the rapid develop- 
ment going forward under their eye might call for. 

It was with a view to such responsibilities and 
opportunities that the general convention of West- 
ern Baptists held at Cincinnati, Nov. 6, 1833, was 
called. " It is believed to have been the first reli- 
gious convention of a general character whose con- 
stituency crossed State lines, west of the Allegha- 
nies." 1 The convention was held in the Sixth Street 
(now Ninth Street) Baptist Church. Of distin- 
guished men present from the East may be named, 
Jonathan Going, Howard Malcolm, K. E. Pattison, 
Alfred Bennett, Heman Lincoln, Elisha Tucker, G. 
F. Davis, Henry Jackson, Jonathan Wade, mission- 
ary to Burma, then on a visit home. The presence 
of men like these, coming such distances, with means 
of travel such as they then were, clearly shows how 
important was felt to be all that concerned right use 
of opportunities in the rapidly developing West. 

Of Western men present we find such names as 
John M. Peck, from Illinois ; Lewis Morgan, In- 
diana ; Hezekiah Johnson and John Stevens, Ohio ; 
Silas Mercer Noel, Kentucky. Mr. Noel was made 
president of the convention and John Stevens and 
Henry Wingate, secretaries. The discussions of the 

1 Mr. Geo. E. Stevens, in the "Standard " of Jan. 25, 1891. 



EDUCATION 331 

convention covered the whole ground of needful 
undertakings in occupancy of the Western field ; 
home missions, ministerial education, religious jour- 
nalism, Bible distribution, Sunday-schools, tract dis- 
tribution, foreign missions, and in general the ques- 
tions then in agitation between friends and oppo- 
nents of all such forms of extra church enterprise. 
It seems to have been expected that the convention 
would be considerably more than just a single great 
gathering of representative men, a constitution being 
regularly adopted, with objects of the organization 
and terms of representative membership defined. 

The result did not prove as anticipated. The 
convention mainly served, in the language of Mr. 
Stevens, as "the pioneer of Baptist deliberative 
bodies other than local churches in Central North 
America," and also, it may be added, for stimulus 
in Christian enterprise among Christian men. One 
more definite result, however, followed. The con- 
vention, among its several acts recommended that 
" steps be taken to establish a great central institu- 
tion, exclusively theological, for the Baptist de- 
nomination in the valley of the Mississippi." That 
Cincinnati or its vicinity must be the most suitable 
point for locating such an institution it was natural 
to assume, in view of its central position at the time 
as indicated above. Nor, save for one element in 
the whole case, would such an educational enterprise 
as the one proposed have been other than most 



332 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

promising. However subsequent events might have 
changed the outlook as regards the field north and 
west in " the valley of the Mississippi," it is easy to 
see what a commanding center of educational power 
the proposed institution might have been in all the 
States bordering on the Ohio, whether north or south 
of that noble stream. There seems no good reason 
why the institution actually planted, as we have now 
to recount, only for one unfortunate cause, should 
not to-day be one of the most prosperous and useful 
of Baptist ministerial schools, whether East or West. 
Upon the adjournment of the convention, those 
under whose leadership it had been called took 
measures in seeking to realize one, at least, of its 
purposes. In 1835 the Western Education Society 
was formed as a preliminary. In the planting of 
the " central institution, exclusively theological," 
contemplated in the act of the convention, it was 
evidently proposed that Ohio and Kentucky should 
share. In this view the original site of the theo- 
logical seminary was selected in what is now a cen- 
tral part of Covington in the latter State, directly 
opposite Cincinnati. Eight Baptists of Cincinnati 
purchased there a tract of land, three hundred and 
seventy acres in extent, much of it no doubt being 
intended for sale as endowment. The price paid 
was thirty-three thousand two hundred and fifty 
dollars. We find the names of the purchasers given 
as Ephraim Robins, John Stevens, Isaac Colby, S. 



EDUCATION 333 

W. Lynd, J. B. Cook, Noble S. Johnson, Henry 
Miller, and Aaron G. Gano. A charter was ob- 
tained for the proposed seminary, under the name 
of the Western Baptist Theological Institute, the 
charter, as granted by the Legislature of Kentucky, 
bearing date February 5, 1840. A faculty was 
chosen, with R. E. Pattison, E. G. Robinson, and 
Ebenezer Dodge as the leading members. 

Scarcely has any educational enterprise originated 
by Baptists been created under what might seem 
better auspices. The endowment in land, in the 
growth of the city where the institution had been 
planted, must have yielded in time a large result. 
The field from which to draw students and general 
support comprehended large districts on both sides 
of the river, whose demand for ministerial supply 
must keep pace with the material development. 
The men in charge of the work of instruction have 
since demonstrated, in the most conclusive way, 
what a great school must have grown up under their 
hands, had a united support been given them, and 
had the founders of the institution had no other in- 
terests in view than simply the work committed to 
their care. 

The painful history which followed, due to one 
unhappy cause, need not here be traced in detail. 
So early as 1847 questions connected with slavery 
began to agitate and divide the Board of direction. 
Influences of the same general character as had al- 



334 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

ready wrought division in the management of for- 
eign and home missions were operative here also. 
The question mainly in agitation was whether the 
chief control in the institute should be in the hands 
of Northern or Southern men, the opposers or the up- 
holders of slavery. In 1847 a change in the char- 
ter was secured by Kentucky members of the Board, 
creating sixteen new trustees, and naming them in 
such a way as to secure for the Southern members an 
overwhelming majority. All the new appointees 
were citizens of Kentucky. 

Against these proceedings members of the Board 
who had not been consulted regarding these amend- 
ments of the charter, and who now found them- 
selves in a minority so disheartening, naturally re- 
volted. When the new trustees, four of the former 
ones uniting with them, demanded possession of the 
property, this was refused them by the custodian. 
Suit was brought to compel him to deliver the prop- 
erty and the petition was granted. An appeal was 
then had to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and by 
this court the decision of the lower court was re- 
versed, the act of the legislature being declared un- 
constitutional and void. 1 

The agitation growing out of these proceedings 

1 We are indebted for these particulars to Mr. George E. Stevens, 
of Cincinnati, who as son of Prof. John Stevens, active in the 
founding and early history of the institute, and as for many 
years conversant with denominational matters in Ohio and Ken- 
tucky, may be accepted as authority. 



EDUCATION 335 

continued for a period of some six years. In 1853 
a compromise was effected in which a division of the 
property and equipment of the institute was made. 
A part went to that section of the Board which rep- 
resented the North, and was used by them in found- 
ing the Fairmount Theological Seminary on the 
Ohio side of the river. The other part, amounting 
to some forty-eight thousand dollars, was transferred 
to the college at Georgetown, Ky., for purposes of 
theological instruction, although under a manage- 
ment in some respects distinct from that of the col- 
lege. The Fairmount Seminary failed of adequate 
support, and in a few years ceased to exist. 

What we have described remained for many years 
the only educational enterprise, distinctively theo- 
logical, undertaken by Baptists in the West. The 
founding of other institutions, however, had always 
in view the education of a ministry suited to the 
needs of the Western field. When Shurtleff College 
was thus planted, the school of Dr. John M. Peck 
at Bock Spring being transferred to Upper Alton 
and connected with it, the theological purpose was 
still in a general way kept in mind. A collegiate 
education would still be in so far a preparation for 
the ministry, and in urging the claims of the college 
this motive was always kept clearly in view. The 
same was true in regard to Franklin and Kalamazoo 
colleges, and the University of Chicago. 

At Kalamazoo, however, more than this was, for 



336 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

a time, attempted. In 1848 measures were entered 
upon for creating a distinctively theological depart- 
ment, so that the college should embrace faculties 
preparatory, collegiate, and theological. In 1850 
Dr. J. A. B. Stone was appointed in conjunction 
with other duties, professor of biblical literature and 
theology. Rev. Samuel Graves, D. D., who upon 
completing his studies at Madison University in 
1847, and serving the university one year as tutor 
in Greek, had in 1848 become pastor of the church 
in Ann Arbor, was in 1851 called to the chair of 
Greek in the college at Kalamazoo and of systematic 
theology in the seminary there. This professorship 
he held to the great satisfaction of those interested 
in the college and its work until 1859, a period of 
eight years. He then resigned to become pastor of 
the Baptist church in Norwich, Conn., ten years 
later of the Baptist church in Grand Rapids, Mich., 
becoming after years of eminent service the presi- 
dent of the theological seminary for the education 
of colored Baptist ministers in Atlanta, Ga. At the 
time of the retirement of Dr. Graves from his pro- 
fessorship at Kalamazoo, in 1859, it was judged not 
expedient to sustain this department longer, and it 
was accordingly discontinued. 

About the time distinctively theological work was 
discontinued at Kalamazoo, it was formally taken up 
by Shurtleff College. Of this college Dr. Daniel 
Read was then the president, and through his in- 



EDUCATION 337 

fluence the gift of thirty thousand dollars was re- 
ceived for the college from Mr. Elijah Gove, of 
Quincy, 111. Upon this foundation a theological 
department was organized, with Dr. R. E. Pattison 
and Dr. E. C. Mitchell appointed as professors. 
After some eight years of service, 1862—70, these 
gentlemen became connected with the new theolog- 
ical seminary at Chicago. Dr. A. A. Kendrick hav- 
ing then become president of the college, the duties 
of professor of theology were attached to his chair. 
Dr. Justus Bulkley had already, in 1864, been called 
from his pastorate at Carrollton to the chair of 
church history and church polity. In 1875 Prof. 
J. C. C. Clarke became professor of biblical lan- 
guages and interpretation. 

The theological department at Shurtleff College 
has sent many valuable men into the ministry. 
From Kalamazoo, also, during the incumbency of 
Dr. Graves especially, highly important service in 
this direction was rendered. In these two institu- 
tions a deficiency in Western education which was 
more and more felt as the country developed, was 
supplied to the extent made possible by the resources 
and equipment at their command. 

The initiative, as regards that work in theolog- 
ical education which subsequently found its center 
at Chicago, was taken by the Baptists of Wisconsin. 
The subject of education, not indeed as distinctively 
theological, but as having the interest of ministerial 

w 



338 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

provision well in view, was among those earliest 
taken in hand by denominational leaders in that 
State. As early as 1842, in fact, there was a meet- 
ing of delegates from churches of the Milwaukee 
Association, to consider the subject of establishing a 
theological institution. Such movements may have 
been in some sense premature, yet in another sense 
they were not, since there must always be initiation 
for any movement having important results in view, 
and steps of preparation, in what seems transient 
and inoperative, for that which is permanent. 

In 1851 occurred what showed that the trend of 
denominational interest in this behalf was having a 
right direction, although the outcome was not as yet 
fully in sight. In the year named a convention was 
held at Beloit, in which appeared a representation 
that was significant of decided advancement as to 
educational policy, not only in Wisconsin, but in ad- 
jacent States. Mr. Nathaniel Crosby, of Janes ville, 
was president of the Convention, and Rev. J. W. 
Fish, of Geneva, secretary. Among those present 
were two from the college at Kalamazoo, represent- 
ing especially its theological department, President 
J. A. B. Stone and Prof. Samuel Graves. From 
Illinois came Rev. Ichabod Clark, of Rockford, Rev. 
Charles Hill Roe, of Belvidere, Rev. James Scho- 
field, of Freeport, with his son, James V. Schofield, 
Rev. Lewis Raymond, of Chicago, Rev. A. J. Jos- 
lyn, of Elgin, Prof. S. S. Whitman, of Belvidere ; 



EDUCATION 339 

while Wisconsin was represented by such men as 
Rev. James Delany, Rev. E. L. Harris, Rev. P. 
Conrad, Rev. J. H. Dudley, and others like these 
active in creating the public sentiment of which this 
movement was the fruit. 

The wise thought in the minds of those who had 
thus come together, was the establishment of an edu- 
cational institution, adequate in scope to future as 
well as present demands, at some point that should 
be central to the several States of Wisconsin, Illi- 
nois, Iowa, and perhaps Michigan. The brethren 
representing the last-named State, Drs. Stone and 
Graves, naturally desired that the college at Kala- 
mazoo should be accepted for this purpose. The 
proposal was entertained in a friendly spirit, but 
not being thought to meet all conditions of the case 
failed of adoption. They of Wisconsin appear to 
have favored Beloit as such a center ; those of Illi- 
nois, Belvidere. Leaving these matters for a later 
decision, the convention appears to have contented 
itself with steps preliminary to the organization of a 
Northwestern Education Society, in which along 
with the States already named, Minnesota should be 
included. Such an organization was accordingly 
made, a constitution adopted, and a Board of direc- 
tors chosen. Under this constitution Rev. Elisha 
Tucker, of Chicago, was elected president, Rev. Jirah 
D. Cole, also of Chicago, corresponding secretary, 
with L. W. Lawrence, of Belvidere, S. Haskell, of 



340 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Detroit, H. G. Weston, of Peoria, and O. J. Dear- 
born, of Janesville, members. 

Results showed that the times were not yet ripe 
for what the organization of such a society contem- 
plated. The question of location for the proposed 
institution was in the way of any united action. 
There seems indeed to have been no subsequent 
meeting of the society, although an address to the 
churches was issued by the directors, urging the im- 
portance of united action in this behalf. The form 
assumed by the educational interest in Wisconsin, of 
which that convention was a sign, will be noticed 
farther on in this record. The effort to secure co- 
operation on the part of adjoining States appears not 
to have been resumed. 

The next convention having in view provision 
for theological education, although in this case dis- 
tinctively such, was held in Chicago in 1860. It 
was called, not upon any widely concerted plan, al- 
though after a somewhat extended correspondence 
with persons interested. The three names signed to 
the call were W. W. Everts, J. B. Olcott, and J. A. 
Smith. The meeting was held in the First Baptist 
Church, Chicago. Although the attendance was 
small, it was resolved, nevertheless, to proceed with 
measures to secure the purpose in contemplation. 
The organization resolved upon was to have the 
name of the Baptist Theological Union for the 
Northwest. A committee was appointed to prepare 



EDUCATION 341 

and report a constitution at another meeting to be 
held in the year following. In 1861 this meet- 
ing was held accordingly, with further preliminary 
steps taken. On this occasion the attendance was 
larger, but the movement did not take final shape 
until 1863. A constitution was then adopted, Hon. 
Richard S. Thomas being chosen president, Rev. 
Luther Stone secretary, and Edward Goodman treas- 
urer. Circumstances, partly owing to the fact that 
the Civil War was prevailing, did not admit of 
rapid progress in developing what had thus been un- 
dertaken, and accordingly the charter of incorpora- 
tion for the Baptist Theological Union, as organized, 
was not obtained until 1865, bearing date February 
16, in that year. 

The object of the organization so formed was the 
creation of a corporate body which should have in 
charge the founding and building of a theological 
seminary at Chicago. In a time of civil war, how- 
ever, and while the University of Chicago, then re- 
cently founded, needed unhindered occupancy of the 
field for securing its own endowment, it was judged 
unwise to press the movement for a theological semi- 
nary, or to attempt more for the time being than 
what should be necessarily preliminary. Even 
when, in 1866, it was decided to begin a work of 
theological instruction at Chicago, no attempt was 
made to organize a faculty. Dr. Nathaniel Colver, 
then pastor of the Second Baptist Church, Chicago, 



342 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

was invited to open a class for instruction in biblical 
theology, and Prof. J. C. C. Clarke, who had filled 
during one year the chair of Greek in the university, 
Prof. Mixer, its incumbent, being engaged in an- 
other department of university service, was asso- 
ciated with Dr. Colver, as teacher of New Testament 
Greek and interpretation. Under these instructors 
classes were organized with some twelve students and 
the work began. The expenses were chiefly met by 
personal friends of Dr. Colver at the East : W. W. 
Cook, Esq., of Whitehall, N. Y., and Messrs Barnes 
and Davis, of Burlington, Yt. 

In May, 1867, an occasion of great interest oc- 
curred in Chicago — the meeting of the national 
Baptist anniversaries for that year. Great prepara- 
tions had been made, and invitations sent abroad in 
a form to command a measure of attendance far be- 
yond what is usual at such times. The city had 
already become famous for the rapidity of its early 
growth, while the new enterprises in education at a 
point so central and important invested both the 
place and the occasion with uncommon interest. 

While the anniversaries were in session, opportu- 
nity was found for directing attention, in a way of 
public meetings with addresses, to the educational 
undertakings in Chicago, one of which, the univer- 
sity, had already been in progress during some ten 
years, with encouraging results, while the other, the 
theological seminary, was on the point of opening 



EDUCATION 343 

with new and enlarged plans in view. Dr. Na- 
thaniel Colver had accepted a position of service at 
Richmond, Va., in connection with the education of 
a ministry for the freedmen of the South. Prof. 
Clarke had become pastor of the Baptist church in 
Madison, Wis. Steps for the organization of a regu- 
lar faculty had already been taken, and two of the 
chairs filled : G. W. Northrup, as professor of sys- 
tematic theology and president, being already upon 
the ground, and Rev. J. B. Jackson, as professor of 
church history. 

Dr. Northrup, born at Antwerp, Jefferson County, 
N. Y., had been educated at Williams College, Mass., 
under President Mark Hopkins, and at the Theo- 
logical Seminary in Rochester, where Dr. E. G. 
Robinson was president. It is evidence of the repu- 
tation gained while yet a student, that immediately 
upon his graduation at Rochester, in 1857, he had 
been appointed instructor in church history in the 
seminary. Of qualification for service in other 
branches of advanced learning he had given proof 
on occasion of his graduation at Williams, having 
been chosen to deliver the metaphysical oration, 
probably the highest graduate honor in that college. 
Ten years of service in the full professorship of 
church history, to which he was soon advanced, es- 
tablished his reputation for learning and for supe- 
rior ability as an instructor. It is said of him that 
probably better work in the department assigned 



344 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

him has never been done in any theological seminary 
in this country. As a preacher, while supplying in 
connection with this service for a year and a half 
the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Rochester, 
he had gained a place in the foremost ranks of the 
Baptist ministry. His acceptance of the presidency 
and professorship of theology in the new seminary 
was regarded as pledging the nascent institution to 
service of the highest class in ministerial training — 
a pledge which, in subsequent years, was amply 
redeemed. 

Prof. Jackson, a native of Illinois, was a gradu- 
ate of Shurtleff College and of the seminary at 
Rochester. Upon finishing his studies at the latter 
institution he had served for some time as pastor of 
the Baptist church in Albion, N. Y. As a pupil of 
Dr. Northrup he had won his esteem and his confi- 
dence, so that upon accepting the call to the new 
service at Chicago, Dr. Northrup fixed upon him as 
his choice for an associate in his work. In Septem- 
ber, 1867, Rev. G. W. Warren, a. m., of Boston, 
was elected professor of Hebrew and exegesis, and 
on October 2nd of that year instruction began. 

At the gathering in May of the year of which 
mention is made above, both the university and the 
seminary were represented in addresses by distin- 
guished men, and in the presence of overflowing 
audiences. A glance at the names of those thus 
taking part is a suggestive reminder of the changes 



EDUCATION 345 

which time has brought in the register of names 
prominent on occasions of the kind. As speaking 
for the university, we find Hon. W. B. Ogden, of 
Chicago, then president of the trustees, and who 
presided at this meeting ; Dr. William Hague, 
Thomas Hoyne, Hon. J. W. Duncan, of Worcester, 
Mass. ; Dr. G. S. Bailey, then superintendent of mis- 
sions in Illinois ; Hon. J. Y. Scammon, and Dr. Reu- 
ben Jeffrey, of Philadelphia, with a poem by Hon. 
Charles Thurber, of Brooklyn, N. Y. At the semi- 
nary gathering, Wm. Phelps, Esq., of New York, 
presiding, the addresses were by Dr. Northrup, J. 
G. Warren, D. D., then foreign secretary of the 
Missionary Union ; Dr. Hague, Dr. George B. Ide, 
Dr. J. S. Backus, secretary of the Home Mission 
Society ; Dr. Armitage, Dr. Eaton, of Madison 
University, and Rev. C. E. Hewitt, then of Michi- 
gan, at the date of this present writing financial 
secretary of the seminary, now the divinity school 
of the new university. Of all these whose spirited 
addresses testified to the fullness of life and power 
enjoyed by them, all save three have passed from 
the scene of human activity, and now live on earth 
only in deeds of service whose fruit never dies, and 
in words of wisdom and inspiration which become 
a part of the history they united to celebrate. 

The seminary opened with a regular faculty, as 
we have said, in October, 1867. Subscriptions 
toward endowment had already been made testifying 



346 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

to the interest felt in the new enterprise by influen- 
tial men. Seven thousand five hundred dollars by 
Messrs. Cook, of Whitehall, N, Y., and Davis and 
Barnes, of Burlington, Vt, of whose substantial 
interest at the beginning under Dr. Colver our nar- 
rative already affords evidence ; five thousand dol- 
lars each by Messrs. Jas. E. Tyler and C. B. Good- 
year, of Chicago ; three thousand dollars by Mr. C. 
N. Holden, of Chicago ; two thousand dollars by 
Mr. J. M. Van Osdell, and one thousand dollars 
each by Messrs. D. H. Sheldon and Charles H. 
Reed, both, like Mr. Van Osdell, of Chicago ; five 
thousand dollars each by Mr. M. L. Pierce, of La- 
fayette, Ind., and James B. Colgate, of New York. 
Smaller amounts were also subscribed by members 
of the church in Evanston, aggregating three thou- 
sand five hundred dollars, with others whose names 
and the amounts have not been preserved, in the 
Second and the Indiana Avenue Churches. 

The election of Dr. G. S. Bailey, as corresponding 
and financial secretary, secured for the seminary an 
executive officer whose service in subsequent years 
was of the utmost value. Dr. Bailey was a native 
of Pennsylvania, born in 1822. Studying at acade- 
mies in that State and in Cazenovia, N. Y., he came 
to Oberlin College, Ohio, when about twenty years 
of age, and was there converted. Returning to his 
native place, Abington, Pa., he was there baptized 
October 16, 1842. After two or three years spent 



EDUCATION 347 

in teaching, he was ordained in May, 1845, and in 
that year was married to Miss Sarah E. Bunnell, of 
Honesdale, Pa. Coming West in 1846, under ap- 
pointment of the Home Mission Society, he served 
three years as pastor at Springfield, 111., six years as 
pastor of the churches in Pekin and Fremont, jointly, 
six years at Metamora, and two at Morris. Having 
thus served seventeen years as an Illinois pastor, he 
became superintendent of missions for the State in 
1863, and after four years of most valuable service 
accepted the post in connection with theological 
work at Chicago, of which we have made mention. 
This post he held from 1867 to 1875. During this 
period, as evidence of his efficiency in the service, 
the building so long occupied, begun in 1868, was 
erected at a cost of sixty-five thousand dollars, while 
the assets of the seminary had increased to one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. After pastorates at 
Pittston, Pa., Niles, Mich., and Ottumwa, Iowa, 
failure of health compelled removal to Pomona, Cali- 
fornia, in 1885, where he died after a lingering and 
painful illness, Sept. 28, 1891. The service of Dr. 
Bailey in connection with seminary work in Chicago 
is a very important part of its history. Of his work 
in the origination of ministers' institutes, we speak 
farther on in this chapter. He was for a time assisted 
in the agency work of the seminary by Rev. Thomas 
Allen, of Ohio, and Rev. William M. Haigh, of 
Illinois. 



348 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Dr. Bailey was succeeded in the secretaryship by 
Rev. T. W. Goodspeed, d. d. Dr. Goodspeed, 
born at Glens Falls, N. Y., in 1843, had studied 
at the University of Chicago, but graduated at 
Rochester, in the university and seminary there. 
His service as pastor, beginning with the North 
Baptist Church, Chicago, in 1866, was continued 
at the Vermont Street Baptist Church, Quincy, 111., 
in a highly successful service of six years, then as 
associate pastor with his brother, Rev. E. J. 
Goodspeed, D. D., at the Second Baptist Church, 
Chicago, from 1872 to 1876, when he resigned to 
accept the secretaryship of the Theological Union 
and Seminary, that of the Northwestern Baptist 
Education Society being associated with this, in 
1879. The removal of the seminary to Morgan 
Park, in 1877, was a most important measure of 
progress, and contributed to make Dr. Goodspeed' s 
term of service a memorable one. Large accessions 
to the endowment were made, financial burdens re- 
moved, buildings erected, adding greatly to the 
equipment of the seminary, with most important ac- 
cessions to the library. Dr. Goodspeed' s connection 
with the movement for creating a new university at 
Chicago terminated his direct service in behalf of 
the seminary, although his co-operation in indirect 
but important ways has continued. 

Returning to our notice of the work of instruction 
in the seminary, we have to speak of the retirement 



EDUCATION 349 

from the chair of biblical literature and exegesis of 
Prof. Warren, and the choice of Prof. A. N. Arnold, 
D. D., to that chair, and of Dr. William Hague to 
that of homiletics, the latter serving at the same 
time as pastor of the University Place Baptist 
Church. In September, 1870, Prof. Jackson re- 
signed, and Dr. Hague was compelled, by the state 
of his wife's health, to return East. Prof. E. C. 
Mitchell, D. D., of Shurtleif College, was then called 
to the chair of Hebrew and Old Testament litera- 
ture, and Prof. R. E. Pattison, D. D., to that of 
biblical interpretation and history of doctrine. In 
1874, Rev. T. J. Morgan, d. d., president of the 
Nebraska State Normal School, was elected profes- 
sor of homiletics, serving as such until 1879, when 
he was chosen professor of church history, Rev. W. 
W. Everts, Jr., being made assistant professor in 
that department. In 1877 Prof. Arnold, having 
been compelled by failure of health to resign, Dr. 
J. R. Boise was called to fill his place, the seminary 
in the same year being removed to Morgan Park. 
In 1878, Prof. W. R. Harper came to the chair of 
Hebrew from Denison University, beginning thus 
his distinguished career as a Semitic scholar and 
teacher, and an organizer of new forms of work in 
education. In the year 1884, Dr. Morgan having 
resigned, Rev. A. J. Sage, d. d., was called from the 
pastorate of the First Baptist Church, in Hartford, 
Conn., to the chair of homiletics, associating with 



350 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

this the pastorate of the Baptist church in Morgan 
Park. The double service proving too taxing, he 
resigned after two years, the work of the depart- 
ment being then assumed by the other professors. 
In 1881 Dr. E. B. Hulbert came from the pastorate 
of the Fourth Church, Chicago, to the chair in 
church history, which he has since filled with so 
much distinction, and which now is associated with 
his office as dean of the divinity school in the new 
University of Chicago. Special lectureships were 
in the later portion of the period here considered, 
held by Galusha Anderson, D. d., in homiletics and 
pastoral studies, and by J. A. Smith, d. d., in mod- 
ern church history, comparative religion, and archae- 
ology. 

The years between the dates of 1867, when the 
seminary opened, and 1892, when it became the 
divinity school of the new university, a full quarter 
of a century, constitute a period of great importance 
in ministerial and educational development among 
Western Baptists. In leading pulpits at the East 
as well as in the West, the seminary at Morgan Park 
was ably represented. The seminary, as a school of 
training for ministers, took rank with the best. Its 
finances were managed with great skill and prudence, 
avoiding the shoals such as those upon which the old 
university had been wrecked. The library had 
grown, in additions of the Hengstenburg and Ide 
collections, to some twenty-five thousand volumes, 



EDUCATION 351 

and the assets of the seminary, all included, to not 
far from five hundred thousand dollars. These 
financial results were due to the devoted service ren- 
dered by the trustees, of which body, Mr. Edward 
Goodman, of the "Standard," became treasurer at 
the earliest organization of the Theological Union in 
1863, remaining in the same office at the date of the 
present record, a period of full thirty years. 



CHAPTEE XV 

EDUCATION THEOLOGICAL AND SECONDARY 

II 

rTlHE commencement of the Baptist Union Theo- 
-*- logical Seminary occurring in May, 1892, was 
an occasion memorable in this history. The insti- 
tution had been in its new location fourteen years. 
Its removal from the city to this new and more at- 
tractive site had been regarded as a final one. Be- 
sides the building originally erected for dormitory 
and lecture-room purposes, a fireproof library had 
been built, and a handsome and commodious edifice 
also for lecture and chapel use, named Blake Hall, 
in honor of Mr. E. Nelson Blake, whose generous 
gift for the purpose had made its erection possible. 
Such a step as now became evidently the wise one 
had been at no time contemplated, and the proposal 
of it, at first, was something of a shock to associa- 
tions in many minds almost sacred. 

That the theological seminary, however, should be 
in close relations with the university was clearly a 
thing much to be desired. In this view a change of 
location for the seminary was in some sense a neces- 
sity, especially if the two institutions were to be- 

352 



EDUCATION 353 

come so associated as to have in any true sense one 
organic life in both. Morgan Park, besides, was 
clearly the most desirable of all locations near or in 
the city for the academy, whose foundation as a de- 
partment of the university would be so important. 
The result of consultations upon the subject was a 
transfer of the seminary to the site selected for the 
university and its connection there with the univer- 
sity as its divinity school, a building for its use in 
direct connection with Cobb Hall, the main building 
of the university, being erected with money con- 
tributed for the purpose, one hundred thousand 
dollars in amount, by Mr. John D. Rockefeller. 

At the commencement of the seminary noticed 
above, in May, 1892, this arrangement was consum- 
mated. The exercises on the occasion, took their 
form very much from this circumstance. In the 
presence of a large audience at the Baptist church, 
President Northrup, after an impressive address, 
conveyed to President W. P. Harper, who was pres- 
ent, the official functions which he had discharged 
with such masterly ability for a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and Dr. Harper, as president of the university, 
thus became the official head also of the seminary 
in its new character as divinity school of the uni- 
versity. In the evening of the same day, at the 
Auditorium in the city, an immense audience was 
addressed by Mr. Blake, as president of the univer- 
sity trustees ; Dr. P. S. Henson, Dr. Wayland Hoyt, 



354 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

and President A. W. Small, of Colby University, 
thus signalizing a creation of new relations highly 
important in the history of Western education. 

In connection with this change of situation, addi- 
tional changes took place also in official relations. Dr. 
Harper having now become president of the divinity 
school as a department of the university, Presi- 
dent Northrup retained simply his functions as head 
professor of systematic theology, Prof. E. B. Hul- 
bert became dean of the divinity school, and Prof. 
Ira M. Price, his department of Hebrew and Old 
Testament interpretation having been made a de- 
partment in the graduate school of the university, 
became now associate professor of the Semitic lan- 
guages and literature in the university. 

Dr. Hulbert, while dean of the divinity school, 
retained his professorship of church history, which 
he had held at Morgan Park since 1881, a term of 
eleven years. A graduate of Union College, Sche- 
nectady, N. Y., in 1863, and of Hamilton Theolog- 
ical Seminary in 1865, he had before entering the 
new sphere of service filled important pastorates in 
St. Paul, San Francisco, and Chicago, while in his 
later functions proving himself a magnetic teacher 
and a man of rare executive energy and efficiency. 
Prof. Price had succeeded to the chair of Hebrew 
in the seminary left vacant in 1886 by the removal 
of Dr. Harper to Yale University. With a genius 
for acquisition in languages, he had shown himself 



EDUCATION 355 

no less qualified as an instructor. The whole field 
of Semitic study was familiar to him, with like ac- 
quaintance also with other ancient literatures, and 
with those of modern languages. Two years had been 
spent by him in study at Leipzig, Germany, under Dr. 
Delitszch, his degree of Doctor of Philosophy being 
there acquired. 

In these new arrangements thus consummated the 
property of the theological seminary at Morgan 
Park became the property of the University of Chi- 
cago, the entire assets, including grounds, buildings, 
library, and endowment, amounting to not far from 
five hundred thousand dollars. The Theological 
Union, by which organization the seminary had 
originally been founded, was continued in existence, 
with the divinity school still under its care, and with 
provisions of administration which guaranteed all 
rights of the denomination as to ultimate juris- 
diction and loyalty to those forms of truth which to 
Baptists are so dear. 

To some extent the planting of academies in these 
Western States had, in the forming of educational 
plans quite from the beginning, been regarded as a 
means to an end, rather than as an end in itself. 
This was partly due, no doubt, to the fact that what 
Baptists in these States most strongly felt as a need, 
in connection with other schools than such as the 
State provided, was an educated ministry. In this 
view they would naturally plan rather for a college, 



356 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

or a theological seminary, than for an academy, save 
as this last might help toward one or the other of the 
former. Then it was often the case that among those 
who were laying educational plans in those days 
were men who themselves were educated, and who, 
looking to a distant future, would feel that such 
plans ought to have all the scope that could reason- 
ably be given them. Added to these is one other 
thing which has had much to do in influencing edu- 
cational policy over the whole Western field. Men 
interested in the growth of some young town, and 
ambitious to command for it as much of central- 
izing influence as possible, making offers of location 
or other inducements to those planning for some edu- 
cational institution, anxious that the school planted 
there should have a name as commanding as possi- 
ble, have been far more willing to give land or sub- 
scribe money for a college, or a university, than for 
an academy. 

The real importance and value of the academy 
has thus been much undervalued by not a few of 
those interested in educational plans, and even 
where a more intelligent view of the subject ob- 
tained, it may often have seemed a necessity in the 
interest of some special end in this regard to con- 
cede the point where to contest might defeat the 
whole undertaking. Besides all this, as the general 
system of public schools has become more complete, 
especially as the high school curriculum has been en- 



EDUCATION 357 

larged and the methods of teaching improved, the 
need of the academy has been less felt; in some 
instances, and of one such we shall have occasion 
for special mention in the course of this chapter, the 
high school has made the academy a practical im- 
possibility. 

In what we have here to record, we concern our- 
selves less with preparatory schools connected with 
colleges, than with institutions established distinc- 
tively as academies. Nor need we delay long over 
institutions already mentioned which so soon became 
colleges and universities, such as the Granville Lit- 
erary and Theological Institute, in Ohio, the Frank- 
lin Baptist Manual Labor Institute, in Indiana, or 
the Kalamazoo Literary Institute, in Michigan. 
Academies, or secondary schools, distinctively as 
such, are our present subject. 

Indiana has had a peculiar experience in this re- 
gard. President Stott has stated the matter so hap- 
pily that we copy here what he sends us. Speaking 
of the time when the college at Franklin was in the 
stress of its severest ordeal, he says : 

Franklin College, however, did not compass the whole 
effort of Indiana Baptists. Schools of the rank of acad- 
emies were planted in several places. One at Ladoga, had 
a season of prosperity. The founders and supporters 
were such brethren as A. D. Billingsley, J. W. Hanna, 
and Rev. R. Davis. Rev. Gibbon Williams was principal 
for several years. He was succeeded by Rev. William 



358 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX "WESTERN STATES 

Hill and afterward by Rev. A. J. Vawter. A good loca- 
tion was secured and a good building put up. But there 
was no endowment, and at length it died. A somewhat 
similar effort was made at Crown Point, under the leader- 
ship of Rev. T. H. Ball. It had a temporary success. 
But it had no endowment, and it died. Another was 
started at College Hill, in Jefferson County. It was in- 
tended especially for colored youth, and was called Eleu- 
therian College. It was founded and fostered by the 
Thompsons and the Cravens who had come from Ohio. 
Several changes were made in the details of the institu- 
tion, but at last, as it had no endowment, it died. An- 
other effort was made at Mitchell, with Rev. S. Burton 
and J. Howard as principals, but at last, as it had no en- 
dowment, it died. Still another was made at Huntington, 
with Deacon J. Kenower as principal patron ; but the 
public high schools came, and as it had no endowment, it 
died. Much preliminary work was also done to estab- 
lish the Western Female Seminary at Lafayette, but no 
instruction was ever begun. The most significant effort 
was made at Indianapolis, in the establishment of the 
Indianapolis Female Institute. It was begun in 1859 or 
1860. It had such able and wise men in its management 
as Rev. Henry Day, d. d., E. C. Atkins, M. G. Clarke, 
d. d., Rev. E. W. Clark, and Deacon J. R. Osgood. 
Rev. C. W. Hewes was principal several years, and was 
succeeded by one of the best men in the country, Rev. 
Lucius Hayden, assisted by his wife. Among the teachers 
whose names come to mind were Miss Esther Boise, 
daughter of Dr. J. R. Boise, Miss Rosa Adams, after- 
ward a missionary to Burma, and Miss R. J. Thompson, 
now professor of mathematics at Franklin College. Sev- 
eral hundred young women were in the seminary from 
first to last. But the endowment was meagre — and it died. 



EDUCATION 359 

It is said that Mr. Atkins was able to save something 
from the wreck, and that whatever was saved went to 
the seminary at Morgan Park. 

In Illinois the work distinctively academic, apart 
from that which was undertaken in connection with 
the founding of the new University of Chicago, has 
been in the direction of provision for the education 
of young women. Almira College, at Greenville, in 
Bond County, quite far south in the State, was for 
many years, from 1857 onward, a prosperous school 
under the principalship of Prof. J. B. White. Ef- 
forts were made to secure its adoption by the Baptist 
denomination in the State ; but these failing, it re- 
mained a private enterprise, passing ultimately into 
the hands of James P. Slade, A. M., for several years 
Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of 
Illinois. Its service as a means of good culture in 
Southern Illinois was from the first, of great value. 

The Mount Carroll Seminary, in the northern 
part of the State, was founded in 1852 by two 
ladies, graduates of the Albany, N. Y., Normal 
School, Miss F. A. Wood and Miss C. M. Gregory. 
They had come into the West that they might con- 
secrate their lives to work in education where it was 
most needed, and chose for their location a spot cen- 
tral to a district agriculturally rich, with growing 
towns in the vicinity. The location was excellent, 
and under their admirable management, entirely as 
a private enterprise, the school rose to a front rank 



360 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

among Western seminaries. After some years Miss 
Wood, having become the wife of Dr. Henry 
Shinier, purchased the interest of her associate, Miss 
Gregory, or Mrs. Lansing, as the wife of Rev. L. 
L. Lansing, and with Miss A. C. Joy as assistant 
principal, still carried on the school during many 
prosperous years. Ample buildings were erected, 
and the departments of a complete course of instruc- 
tion for young women organized and carried on. 
In the year 1892 we find the value of the property, 
with all incumbrances deducted, placed at ninety- 
five thousand dollars. 

In Ohio we find the academic work in close con- 
nection with that of the university. In 1832-33 
Charles Sawyer, one of the members of the Baptist 
church in Granville, Ohio, where the Granville 
Theological and Literary Institute had just been 
established, erected two frame buildings, one for a 
schoolroom, the other for a boarding house, to be 
used for a school for girls. The wife of Rev. H. 
Gear, a home missionary agent, living in the village, 
was induced to take charge of the work of instruc- 
tion, and the first year there were twenty-five young 
women in attendance. She was succeeded by a Mr. 
Poland and wife, of Massachusetts, who conducted 
the school for a short time, until Mrs. Poland's 
death. Various persons were engaged as teachers 
until 1839, Rev. Samuel Budd Swain being the last 
one. Then the buildings and grounds passed into 



EDUCATION 361 

the hands of the Episcopalians, who had control of 
them until 1861. 

In 1859, however, Rev. N. S. Burton, father of 
Prof. E. D. Burton of the University of Chicago, 
with his wife had started a Baptist school for girls, 
hearing the classes in the basement of the Baptist 
church. They were assisted in teaching by some of 
the professors in Denison University, and they grad- 
uated two classes. In 1861 Rev. Marsena Stone 
came to Granville, raised one thousand dollars in the 
church, and bought the buildings from the Episco- 
palians, and after improving them to a considerable 
extent, carried on the Young Ladies' Institute, which 
Mr. Burton then gave up. In 1868 Dr. Stone sold 
the property to Rev. Daniel Shepardson, who con- 
tinued in charge of it until 1887, a period of nine- 
teen years, when by his gift it was turned over to a 
Board of Trustees, representing the Baptists of Ohio, 
who accepted the grounds and buildings, raised an 
endowment of one hundred thousand dollars, and 
have since carried it on under the same general plan 
as that which governs Denison University, giving it 
the name of Shepardson College. 

Granville Academy, in Granville, Ohio, was set 
apart as a separate school in 1887, since which time 
it has been under the charge of Prof. J. D. S. 
Riggs, its management being the Board of trustees 
of Denison University. From the first days of the 
college proper, there had been a preparatory school 



362 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

attached, and this formed the basis of what is now 
the academy, the new arrangement having been made 
in order to magnify the college proper, and especially 
to allow separate discipline of the younger students. 
A building was erected especially for the academy 
by Mr. W. H. Doane, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Prof. 
Eiggs had been connected with the old University 
of Chicago, and being in every way well fitted for 
his present position, the school has prospered under 
his care. 

We have previously noted that Wisconsin Baptists 
were early awake to the need of an educational in- 
stitution in their State, a convention being held in 
1851, the result of which was the organization of 
a Northwestern Education Society. No definite 
action seems to have been taken by this society, yet 
it undoubtedly led to the movement in 1854 by the 
Board of the State Convention in organizing a Wis- 
consin Education Society for the purpose of estab- 
lishing an institution of learning in the State. It 
was decided to offer the institution to the place bid- 
ding most liberally for it, and this resulted in its lo- 
cation at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Fox Lake also 
made a very generous offer, and as co-education was 
strenuously opposed by some, the Baptist Female 
College was founded in Fox Lake at about the same 
time with Wayland University in Beaver Dam. 
The resources of Baptists in the State at that day 
were clearly not sufficient for the maintenance of 



EDUCATION 3G3 

two institutions, and the Fox Lake school, after 
some years, passed into the hands of the Congrega- 
tionalists. In the winter of 1854-55 Way land 
University was duly incorporated, and the corner- 
stone of the first building was laid July 4, 1855. 
The school opened September 19, 1855, with Rev. 
Benjamin Newall as president. Way land Academy 
had, at the request of its trustees, been under the 
care of the University of Chicago, but it now be- 
came independent, and a heroic, though unsuccessful 
attempt was made to raise an endowment of one 
hundred thousand dollars. Its affairs were brighten- 
ing, however, for on September 29, 1881, the Hon. 
Charles L. Colby, in a letter to Prof. Jewett, chair- 
man of the executive committee, " proposed to give 
ten thousand dollars toward a fund of twenty thou- 
sand, to be called the 'Eli H. Salter Fund/ pro- 
vided that within the next twelve months ten thou- 
sand dollars additional be given for the same purpose 
by the friends throughout the State." This amount 
was raised in the State through the faithful services 
of Prof. Jewett, Dr. A. F. Mason, and other earnest 
workers. The following year a special service was 
held in connection with the Convention to celebrate 
the event, which Mr. Colby himself attended, deliv- 
ering a most impressive address on Christian Educa- 
tion. In 1890 an effort was made to raise thirty- 
two thousand five hundred dollars, for endowment, 
the National Baptist Education Society offering to 



364 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEEN STATES 

give seven thousand five hundred dollars, provided 
the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars was raised 
in the State. This endowment was completed Janu- 
ary 1, 1892, largely through the effective labor of 
the financial secretary, Eev. L. G. Catchpole and 
those associated with him. 

Since that time the progress of Way land has been 
steady and progressive. Prof. Burchard is leading 
the institution to broader and higher achievements. 
The institution still maintains its high repute of 
complete and thorough scholarship. It has been 
brought into affiliation with the University of Chi- 
cago, thus enlarging the scope of its operations and 
privileges, while it still maintains its devotional 
spirit and its deep religious character, making it 
what its friends have always desired it to be, a 
center of Christian education. 



CHAPTER XVI 

JOURNALISM 

TF one were to judge by what is expected of reli- 
-*- gious journals in later times, it might be to him 
matter for much surprise that in the earlier history 
of these States enterprises of that nature should have 
been deemed in any way practicable, or that when 
undertaken they should have held on their way so 
long. When Prof. John Stevens, of whom we have 
often had occasion to speak in previous pages, and 
who previous to his removal to the West had been 
at the head of an academy in Reading, Mass., began 
at Cincinnati the publication, in 1831, of the paper 
founded by him under the name of the " Baptist 
Weekly Journal of the Mississippi Valley," there 
were, we are told, in the whole of Ohio, only about 
ten thousand Baptists, " and a large portion of them 
were opposed to Sunday-schools, to missions, and to 
an educated ministry." Those holding such views 
were little likely to lend their aid in support of an 
enterprise in the hands of one known to be an en- 
thusiastic advocate of them all. But there had been 
like undertakings antedating even this. We find 
mention made in the Minutes of the State Conven- 

365 



366 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

tion for 1828 and 1829, of the " Western Religious 
Magazine," conducted by Rev. Geo. C. Sedgwick ; 
and again, on the abandonment of that enterprise for 
want of support, of a monthly entitled the " Western 
Miscellany," by the same editor, published, as the 
former had been, at Zanesville. 

The enterprise headed by Mr. Stevens was evi- 
dently under the auspices of the State Convention. 
At the meeting held in May, 1831, we find that the 
following action was taken : " Inasmuch as we ex- 
pect a weekly paper under the patronage of the Con- 
vention, to be circulated in July, therefore, Re- 
solvedly That we request the Board to instruct each 
missionary to obtain subscribers for said paper, and 
that we request our denomination to patronize it, and 
the Minutes of this session to be published in it, as 
well as in the e Miscellany. ' '' 

The first number of the paper, being that of 
which Prof. Stevens was the editor, bore date July 
22, 1831. In the proceedings of the Convention at 
its session in May, 1832, we find a more extended 
entry, as follows, in a report of the committee on 
publication : 

We learn from the publishing committee that the ex- 
penses of the ' ' Journal ' ' are as follows : The expenses 
of paper and the doing of the work of one year, $1,976 ; 
to which add the editor's compensation and postage, 
office rent, agents, and other incidental expenses, and 
the whole will amount to not less than $3,000. The 



JOURNALISM 367 

present number of subscribers reckoned good is 700. 
The average number of subscribers for the first year is 
550, and the amount to be received from them, $1,100. 
Before commencing the publication about $1,100 was 
secured by a subscription by the publishing committee 
and others to meet the expenses, and the publishing 
committee became responsible for the deficiency, which 
is from $800 to $1,000. The expense of publishing the 
paper besides the income from subscribers has been 
nearly $2,000, a burden insupportable to be borne by 
those who first came forward to assume the responsi- 
bility. 

It is therefore urged that special exertions be 
made in behalf of " an object most highly deserving 
of the sacrifices which it is estimated will be re- 
quired." It is recommended that the publishing 
committee allow the acting Board of the Convention 
twenty-five cents for each paying subscriber by them 
obtained ; also that an effort be made " to raise one 
thousand dollars in shares of ten dollars each, to be 
paid the whole or in part as shall be necessary, and 
to be paid in quarterly installments to the publish- 
ing committee." 

These Minutes of proceedings are of real historical 
interest, as showing the estimate placed by those 
then in the lead of Western Baptist affairs upon 
stated means of communication among the churches, 
and of appeal in behalf of the common work and its 
necessities ; also, how strong the purpose was to 
make provision in this behalf in spite of fewness of 



368 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX WESTERN STATES 

members and limited means. The paper as thus 
established under the editorship of Mr. Stevens, 
with Koble S. Johnson as publisher, during the seven 
years of its continuance, was all which had been 
hoped of it in the particulars named. We find the 
paper described as " a folio," twenty by thirteen 
inches to the page, and the subscription price two 
dollars in advance, or three dollars at the end of the 
year. It had in three years a subscription list of 
one thousand three hundred. 

Soon after this beginning had been made, a paper 
called " The Cross " began publication at Frankfort, 
Ky., and in the course of a few years was combined 
with the " Journal," the name becoming " The Cross 
and Baptist Journal of the Mississippi Valley," the 
popular name being " The Cross and Journal," by 
which name it was known for a decade or more. It 
was hoped that the united paper would meet the 
wants of the Baptists of the great States bordering 
on the Ohio, and that by their support it would be- 
come self-supporting and effective. At that time 
the Baptists of Ohio numbered, according to the 
most careful census possible, about nine thousand 
eight hundred ; those in Kentucky were more nu- 
merous, and those of Indiana and Illinois perhaps 
somewhat less so. In a short time, however, another 
paper was started in Kentucky, and the support of 
that State was gradually withdrawn from the " Cross 
and Journal." About the same time the lines began 



JOURNALISM 369 

to be drawn between the "missionary" and the 
" anti-missionary " Baptists, the latter being in some 
sections the majority and expelling the " missionary " 
churches from their Associations. " The Cross and 
Journal" was true to the missionary idea, and 
strongly supported the Baptist Triennial Convention 
in its foreign mission work, and the American Bap- 
tist Home Mission Society in its home mission work, 
whether in Ohio or farther West. 

After a service of seven years, during which time 
the paper continued to be published in Cincinnati, 
Mr. Stevens resigned the editorial management and 
accepted the chair of intellectual and moral philoso- 
phy in Granville College, and the paper was trans- 
ferred to Rev. George Cole, who soon after removed 
it to Columbus, the capital of the State. At that 
time there seemed to be a disposition to draw a line, 
corresponding with what was known as the "Na- 
tional Road," between the northern and southern 
sections of the State, and it was thought that if pub- 
lished at Columbus it could more fully command 
the confidence and the support of both sections. 
This proved to be true, and the building of railroads 
and other things tended to unify interests and to 
bring the denomination into more thorough sympa- 
thy. Soon after the removal to Columbus, Mr. 
Cole, the proprietor and publisher, associated with 
himself as editor, Rev. David A. Randall, and this 
arrangement continued till April 16, 1847, when 



370 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTEBN STATES 

Mr. Cole transferred his interest to Mr. Randall and 
Mr. J. L. Bachelder, who became joint proprietors 
and editors, and changed the name to " The Western 
Christian Journal/' the first issue under the new 
title bearing the date above given. December 21, 
1849, Mr. Randall retired and Mr. Bachelder be- 
came sole editor and proprietor. 

It was about this time that there was abroad a 
conviction that too many papers were seeking the 
patronage of the denomination, and that the " Chris- 
tian Messenger/' which had been for six years pub- 
lished at Indianapolis, Ind., ought to be united with 
the "Western Christian." A conference was held 
of persons not directly interested in either paper, 
one of them being the founder of the " Messenger," 
and it was agreed that the union should be effected, 
if possible. Both papers were dragging out a pre- 
carious existence, and it was hoped that by the 
union of the two and their removal to Cincinnati, 
both States could be served and great gain secured. 
The union was soon after effected, and the first issue 
of " The Journal and Messenger " was dated Decem- 
ber 21, 1849. Immediately after the office of pub- 
lication was removed to Cincinnati, where it has 
ever since remained. Mr. Bachelder continued to 
be the editor and proprietor until 1856, when some 
of the more prominent Baptists of the State began 
to feel that something ought to be done to make it 
more efficient and increase its circulation. It was 



JOURNALISM 371 

found that Mr. Bachelder was willing to sell, and a 
stock company was formed and incorporated (the 
capital stock being placed at ten thousand dollars) 
for the purpose of buying the paper and putting it 
under other management. The articles of incor- 
poration bear date May 9, 1856. The name of the 
company was " The Central Baptist Press Company." 
Mr. Cole was recalled to the editorship and man- 
agement, and for twenty years the paper was pub- 
lished under the auspices and ownership of the same 
company. Mr. Cole continued to be the editor and 
manager until 1864, when Rev. T. J. Melish was 
elected to succeed him. Soon after Rev. J. R. Stone, 
of Fort Wayne, Ind., became " corresponding editor 
for Indiana," a position which he continued to hold 
until 1874. 

During all these years the growth had been slow. 
Hardly would the paper get on " a paying basis " 
when some adverse influence would set in, either a 
want of sympathy with the management, or the 
starting of another paper, and there would be a posi- 
tive and imperiling loss. In January, 1872, Rev. 
John R. Baumes, then a pastor in Springfield, O., 
succeeded to the editorship and management. After 
a few weeks he called to his assistance Rev. W. N. 
Wyeth, then a pastor in Ohio, and in August of the 
next year, a small paper, called " The Baptist Mis- 
sionary," published at Evansville, Ind., was merged 
into the " Journal and Messenger " ; Mr. Wyeth 



372 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

went to Indianapolis and opened an office, and from 
that time the paper was published simultaneously at 
Cincinnati and Indianapolis. In 1874 Dr. Stone's 
name as " corresponding editor for Indiana " was 
dropped, and that of Mr. Wyeth was inserted as 
editor, conjointly with that of Mr. Baumes. 

In July, 1876, Eev. George William Lasher, 
D. d., purchased all the stock of the Central Baptist 
Press Company and became sole proprietor, while 
Dr. Wyeth continued to serve as editor, with his 
office at Indianapolis. In 1883 Dr. Wyeth was re- 
moved from Indianapolis to Cincinnati, though a 
publication office was still retained in the former 
city. In 1887 He v. Grover Pease Osborne pur- 
chased a half interest in the paper, and, removing 
from Toledo, Ohio, where he was then pastor, be- 
came associated in the editorial and business man- 
agement. In 1888 Dr. Wyeth closed his connec- 
tion with the paper and removed to Philadelphia. 
Messrs. Lasher and Osborne applied themselves 
vigorously to the improvement of the paper in' every 
department and with nattering assurances of suc- 
cess from its friends. 

Previous to entrance upon this new form of service, 
Dr. Lasher had filled important positions in other 
spheres. His first pastorate, after graduation from 
college and seminary, was with the Baptist church 
in Norwalk, Conn. After service for six months as 
chaplain of a Connecticut regiment, in 1861, resign- 



JOURNALISM 373 

ing this position he reentered the pastorate, serving 
in Haverhill, Mass., and Trenton, N. J., and from 
1872 to 1875 as corresponding secretary of the New 
York Baptist Education Society. Rev. Grover 
Pease Osborne, his associate from the year 1887 on- 
ward, son of Rev. David Osborne, was born in 
Trumansburg, N. Y., in 1847. The father, at the 
date of our present writing, is still living at Grand 
Rapids, Mich. The son was educated at Kalama- 
zoo College and the Theological Seminary at Chi- 
cago, and for several years was in the pastorate. 
The " Journal and Messenger " in the hands of these 
gentlemen has taken and held a high position in 
American religious journalism; pronounced and pos- 
itive in tone upon all great questions, and with a 
literary character commending it warmly to the favor 
of cultivated people. 

The history of Baptist journalism in Indiana is 
to a considerable extent connected with that in other 
States. Mention has already been made of the 
" Messenger," which ultimately became united with 
the paper in Ohio. It was begun in Madison, Ind., 
by Rev. E. D. Owen, in 1843, and in 1846 was re- 
moved to Indianapolis, from there passing to Cin- 
cinnati for its new career under other auspices. For 
some years Rev. A. R. Hinckley, pastor at Frank- 
lin, served as associate editor of the " Baptist Banner 
and Pioneer," published at Louisville, Ky. We are 
informed also that Hon. Jesse L. Holman for several 



374 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

years held a like relation with the " Baptist Advo- 
cate " at Cincinnati. In what ways the State inter- 
ests were represented by associate editors of the Ohio 
paper, located at Indianapolis, has already been men- 
tioned. 

At the commencement of Franklin College, in 
June, 1856, it was resolved by the brethren who met 
there, to make an effort to establish a paper at In- 
dianapolis. The name chosen at the time was the 
" Indiana Recorder/' but the name was almost im- 
mediately changed to the " Witness." Rev. M. G. 
Clarke, for many years prominent in the Baptist 
ministry of the East, came to Indianapolis especially 
with a purpose to conduct the paper so founded. 
Calling soon to his aid Rev. E. W. Clarke, now a 
missionary in Assam, jointly with him Mr. Clarke 
continued the publication until 1867, when the 
" Witness " was merged in the paper at Chicago, 
then called the "Christian Times," Rev. M. G. 
Clarke himself accepting the position of financial 
secretary of the university there. 

The effort to sustain a paper specially for Indiana 
was not renewed until the year 1881. In that year 
Rev. G. H. Elgin, pastor of the North Baptist 
Church, Indianapolis, calling to his aid Mr. U. H. 
Chaille, began the publication of the " Indiana Bap- 
tist." During nine years, from 1881 to 1890, Mr. 
Elgin and Mr. Chaille conducted the paper — a 
handsome sheet, compact in matter, edited with ex- 



JOURNALISM 375 

cellent skill and in an admirable spirit. The death 
of Mr. Elgin in 1890, while a loss keenly felt in 
many ways, was especially so in this journalistic en- 
terprise which, owing to the severe labor and many 
sacrifices made imperative, with other service neces- 
sarily added, had greatly overtaxed his strength. 
Soon after his death a joint-stock company was 
formed, and with Mr. Chaille as business manager 
and Rev. D. R. McGregor as editor, the paper was 
continued, with its high character for journalistic ex- 
cellence fully maintained and with highly valued 
service to the denomination in the State. 

The Baptists of Michigan, like those in other 
States, were early in the field of religious journal- 
ism. At the first anniversary of the State Conven- 
tion, held in 1837, we find the following resolution 
adopted : " That the Board of this Convention take 
into consideration the expediency of publishing a 
semi-weekly or monthly paper under the patronage 
of this Convention, and publish such paper when in 
their judgment it is called for and can be sustained." 
Some correspondence was had with conductors of 
the " Baptist Register," published in Utica, N. Y., 
under a proposition from them to supply the State 
with the needed organ, with a percentage of sub- 
scriptions in the State to be given to the Board of 
the Convention for its missionary work. Pending 
action upon this proposition, and through other 
causes of delay, action in the matter was in a state 



376 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

of suspension until the anniversary of the Conven- 
tion held at Edwardsburg in 1841, when it was de- 
cided to enter immediately upon steps preparatory 
to the desired publication, Rev. A. Ten Brook, and 
Messrs. R. C. Smith and S. M. Kendrick being ap- 
pointed as a publishing committee. It was directed 
that the name of the paper be " The Michigan 
Christian Herald/' and the place of publication, 
Detroit. In July of the following year the first 
number appeared, with Rev. A. Ten Brook as 
editor, and the gentlemen associated with him under 
appointment by the Convention as publishing com- 
mittee. It was an eight-page paper of three col- 
umns, nine and one-half inches long, to the page. 
The next issue was in March following, and every 
month thereafter during the year, except that two 
numbers were published in November, making 
twelve numbers for the year. We are told that the 
three editorials in the first number were upon the 
following subjects : " The State of Morals and Reli- 
gion in Detroit," " Prophecy," and the " Study of 
the Scriptures." There was also a sermon upon 
" The Design of the Lord's Supper." * 

It is evident that the denomination in Michigan 
entered with much heartiness into the support of the 
enterprise. In July, 1843, Mr. R. C. Smith, for 

1 For much of our material upon Baptist journalism in Michi- 
gan, we are indebted to a paper upon that subject read by Rev. 
J. S. Boyden at the Michigan Semi-Centennial in 1886. 



JOURNALISM 377 

the publishing committee, reports a subscription 
list of one thousand four hundred and fifty-three, 
and when the Convention met in the autumn of that 
year this number had increased to one thousand five 
hundred and twenty-four. In the year named the 
total membership in the State w T as seven thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-six, so that the constituency 
of the paper stood at very nearly one-fourth of the 
entire membership of the churches. 

Mr. Ten Brook being at the time pastor of the 
church in Detroit, continued as editor during three 
years, Rev. Miles Sandford being associate editor. 
Upon the removal of Mr. Ten Brook to Ann Ar- 
bor, as professor in the State University there, Mr. 
Sanford remained in sole editorial charge. With 
the first number for 1845, the paper appeared as a 
weekly, Mr. R. C. Smith continuing his active ser- 
vice in promoting the circulation. In the second 
number of the year it printed a list of eighty-nine 
agents for the paper — a fact which, while it proves 
the interest felt in promoting its circulation, accounts 
also for its success in that regard. The receipts, in- 
deed, exceeded the cost of publication, so that al- 
though the paper had been enlarged, and its expense 
increased, it yielded to the Convention in 1845 a net 
surplus of three hundred and seventy-three dollars. 
In 1846 Rev. James Inglis, pastor of the church in 
Detroit, became the editor, the circulation having 
increased to two thousand three hundred. The 



378 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

paper was then sold by the Convention to Mr. O. S. 
Gulley, of Detroit, who had up to this time been its 
printer. Mr. Gulley, upon becoming proprietor, en- 
gaging " to pay into the treasury of the Convention 
a percentage on all subscriptions above a fixed num- 
ber, and to enlarge the paper when it should have 
three thousand subscribers." 

An important era in Michigan Baptist journalism 
was reached in the year 1848, when Rev. Marvin 
Allen became proprietor of the paper, and Rev. 
G. W. Harris its editor. Mr. Allen, born at Fabius, 
N. Y., in 1800, had studied at Hamilton and had 
served some years as pastor in his native State, 
when in 1837 he came to Michigan as pastor at 
Adrian, being in 1844 called to a like service at 
Ann Arbor. His health failing he was compelled 
to leave the pastorate, and entered the service of 
the State Convention as its general agent. In the 
year named, 1848, he became proprietor and pub- 
lisher of the Baptist paper at Detroit, so continuing 
until his death in 1861. His name is held in grati- 
tude and high honor in Michigan Baptist history. 
Rev. G. W. Harris was also a native of the State of 
New York, born at Nassau, Livingston County, in 
1813. He took his collegiate and theological course 
at Hamilton, graduating finally in 1842, and being 
ordained at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1843. The year 
following he removed to Michigan, becoming pastor 
at Jackson in that State. Accepting the editorship 



JOURNALISM 379 

of the paper at Detroit in 1848, he continued in 
that service fifteen years, until 1863, resigning it in 
that year and from that time forward having his 
home in Battle Creek. 

The " Michigan Christian Herald " as conducted 
by these two able men and earnest Christians, held 
a high place in the Baptist journalism of the coun- 
try. Its circulation, although never very large, still 
reached to a considerable extent to other States, and 
was valued by those who had other reasons for ap- 
preciating it besides its excellent service as the Bap- 
tist organ for the State. Following the death of Mr. 
Allen and the retirement of Mr. Harris, the current 
of prosperity appears to have materially changed. 
The paper was removed to Kalamazoo, and there for 
a while was published by Messrs. Olney and Hunting- 
ton, Prof. E. Anderson being associated in the edito- 
rial work. In 1864 the proprietors became Messrs. 
Olney and Curtiss, Rev. E. Curtiss taking the sole 
responsibility of the publication, " not from choice, 
but to keep faith with the denomination." Other 
changes of proprietorship occurred until the year 
1867, when Rev. J. A. Clark and Mr. J. P. Cad- 
man being in charge, arrangements were by them 
made with the proprietors of the " Christian Times 
and Witness," at Chicago, for consolidation with 
that paper, which thereupon, took the name of " The 
Standard." 

The history of Baptist journalism in Michigan 



380 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

» 

from that date to the present is thus briefly sum- 
marized by Dr. Haskell : 

Michigan owes much to Rev. Luther H. Trowbridge, 
with Mrs. Trowbridge as an equal editor, for their re-es- 
tablishment and maintenance of the ' ' Christian Herald. ' ' 
When it was suspended as a State publication, Mr. Trow- 
bridge had left his successful pastorate at Three Rivers 
at the call of Kalamazoo College to take its financial 
agency. Feeling the need of an organ through which 
to speak directly to the churches, he published for a 
time the "Torchlight." But soon the call voiced it- 
self to him and wife to put their property and their ser- 
vice upon the chances of reissuing from Detroit the full- 
sized ' ' Christian Herald. " As to their property risk, 
their friends feared for them. But with their own mu- 
tual hard work and economical living in the office, 
they carried the enterprise safely to themselves and sat- 
isfactorily to patrons, until favoring providences brought 
them to an easier independence. 

In Illinois, Baptist journalism has been from the 
beginning wholly a matter of private enterprise ; 
in decided contrast with the journalism of Ohio and 
Michigan. This too may in part account for the 
considerable amount of vicissitude, notably in the 
history during some eleven years, from 1842 to 
1853. Other causes help to explain the fact of four 
undertakings in this direction, previous to that in 
the year last named, which has been continuous dur- 
ing the forty-two years till the date of our present 
narrative. 



JOURNALISM 381 

We might, indeed, add still another to the num- 
ber of newspaper enterprises in the Baptist interest 
begun in Illinois and afterward abandoned. In 
1828 Dr. J. M. Peck, who had been for a time asso- 
ciate editor, representing Illinois, with Dr. John L. 
Waller, of the " Banner and Pioneer," of Louis- 
ville, Ky., established a paper of his own at Rock 
Spring, naming it the " Western Pioneer and Bap- 
tist." This, however, was of short continuance, and 
there is little to record of its history. 

The next attempt of the kind was made at Chi- 
cago, Rev. C. B. Smith commencing there, with 
the first number dated September 20, 1842, a 
paper named " The Northwestern Baptist." It was 
to appear "once in two weeks," the subscription 
price being one dollar per year. Apart from the 
fact that at so early a date a field sufficient to yield 
support even to an enterprise inaugurated upon a 
plan so economical could scarcely be hoped for, the 
paper at Chicago found itself at the outset in an 
atmosphere of controversy likely to become embar- 
rassing. The anti-slavery agitation was growing 
more and more active in the West as well as in the 
East. The editor found it difficult to meet the views of 
both radicals and conservatives in his management of 
the paper. Complaints were made, especially by the 
former, that free discussion of the subject of slavery, 
more particularly in its aspects as connected with 
missionary policy, was not allowed, A paying con- 



382 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

stituency for the paper could not be built up under 
these conditions. The editor depended for his per- 
sonal support upon his salary as pastor, first of the 
First Baptist Church, then of the Tabernacle Church, 
founded by him. When at the end of two or three 
years, he resigned the latter charge and left Chicago, 
his paper, as a natural result, ceased to exist. 

Not far from this time, in 1845, Rev. Alvin Bailey 
had commenced the publication of a Baptist paper 
in Jacksonville, under the name of the " Western 
Star." Coming to Illinois very soon after his ordi- 
nation, he first opened a school at Upper Alton, then 
for a time served as pastor the Baptist church at 
Alton City, subsequently was pastor at Carrollton, 
and at the date of beginning his newspaper enter- 
prise, was pastor at Jacksonville. 

" To his paper," says Gen. Mason Brayman, " he 
gave unrequited labor for some two years. Like 
all his work the ' Star ' was conservative, helpful, 
and in its degree efficient. But, like many other 
ventures of its kind, it was not a success, and it 
was, with its good will and subscription list, trans- 
ferred to the struggling denominational paper at 
Chicago." This " struggling denominational paper at 
Chicago " had now become the " Watchman of the 
Prairies," owned and edited by Rev. Luther Stone. 
This paper, however, had a competitor already in 
the field, " The Western Christian," founded in the 
same year, 1845, as Mr. Bailey's paper, "The 



JOURNALISM 383 

Western Star." A joint-stock company was formed 
as its basis, with, as mentioned on a former page, 
Rev. A. J. Joslyn, Rev. J. E. Ambrose, and Rev. 
Spencer Carr, of Racine, for leaders in the enterprise. 
Rev. Warham Walker, from Western New York, 
however, soon became the editor, and the paper pub- 
lished at Elgin and representing the Free Mission 
movement described earlier in this history, gained a 
considerable circulation in Northern Illinois and Wis- 
consin. At the end of some three years " The West- 
ern Christian " was removed to New York City, and 
there united in the same Free Mission interest with 
the " American Baptist." 

Illinois and Wisconsin had now become a field for 
the paper at Chicago. Dividing questions, however, 
were in the way of anything like a united support. 
Mr. Stone had been, while " The Western Christian " 
was in process of publication, very decided in his 
opposition to the views of missionary policy in its 
relation to slavery advocated in that paper, and now 
found those who had shared those views wholly in- 
disposed to give him their support. Mr. Stone had, 
after graduating at Brown University and at New- 
ton, deliberately chosen the West for his field of 
labor. Immediately upon his ordination, in 1843, 
he had come upon the Western field, and engaged in 
active service, mostly itinerant and at his own charges, 
until the year 1847, when he began the issue of the 
paper at Chicago. 



384 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Gen. Brayman has appropriately characterized 
Mr. Stone's enterprise as a " struggling " one. 
Many things were against him. He persevered, 
however, gaining for his paper a considerable circu- 
lation. After six years, a proposal being made to 
him by Rev. J. C. Burroughs, who had become pas- 
tor of the First Baptist Church of Chicago, to pur- 
chase his paper, with its subscription list, he ac- 
cepted the proposal as made, Rev. H. G. Weston, 
of Peoria, and Rev. A. J. Joslyn, of Elgin, becoming 
associated with Mr. Burroughs in the temporary man- 
agement of the paper, which had been suspended for 
a short time and now became really a new one, with 
a new name, " The Christian Times." This arrange- 
ment was consummated in 1853, the publication of the 
paper under its new auspices beginning in August of 
that year. Mr. Stone's residence continued to be in 
Chicago, where he interested himself much in de- 
nominational affairs, being one of the original trus- 
tees of the Baptist Theological Union founded in 
that city and its first secretary. 

The time had come when Baptist journalistic en- 
terprise at Chicago might enter upon a new career 
with a better outlook. That rapid growth of the city 
which has eventuated in what is now seen had al- 
ready begun. A question long pending as to the 
point at which intercommunication, commerce, edu- 
cational, and other influence, should center was rap- 
idly approaching decision. Those who now under- 



JOURNALISM 385 

took the responsibilities of journalism in behalf of the 
denomination, not only in Illinois, but over the entire 
Northwestern field, were indeed to depend wholly 
upon their own resources, with neither State Con- 
vention nor any other form of helpful organization 
to lend its support. But they came to their charge 
at a time when a sense of need as to efficient jour- 
nalistic service was very strongly felt ; at a time too, 
when a conciliatory policy on the part of the paper 
was sure to be appreciated and to win friends in its 
behalf. The vast region to which it was to look for 
a constituency was rapidly filling up, although much 
of it was yet a wilderness, or a wide-stretching prai- 
rie with only here and there the rude home of the 
venturesome pioneer. It was felt, however, that 
year by year the mighty empire beyond the river 
must be dotted with towns and cities, and the jour- 
nalistic field, with Chicago as its center, reach the 
great Western mountains, and perhaps the shores of 
the far Pacific itself. 

Those who undertook this service for the denomi- 
nation at their own proper risk, were as yet untried 
in journalism, save in the case of one of them, except 
such experience as had been gained in occasional 
newspaper correspondence. Rev. Leroy Church, who 
supplied funds for beginning the new enterprise, had 
come from the pastorate of the Baptist church in 
Hudson, N. Y. His first pastorate, at Schenectady, 
N. Y., beginning immediately upon his graduation, 



386 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

had lasted until 1845, in which year his pastorate at 
Hudson was entered upon, continuing until his com- 
ing to Chicago in 1853. His associate, the writer 
of this history, was a few years younger, having 
been born at Ticonderoga, 1ST. Y., in 1819. Gradu- 
ating at Union College, Schenectady, in 1843, after a 
year of service as principal of the academy in what 
was then East Bennington, Yt., he entered the 
ministry as pastor of the Baptist church in North 
Bennington ; after five years there, accepting a call 
to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in 
Eochester, N. Y., and leaving that post of service 
in November, 1853, to join Mr. Church at Chicago. 
The proprietorship of the paper was at first 
held by the two parties named, and the editorial 
work was shared between them. After some six 
months, however, Rev. J. F. Childs, then pastor in 
Lockport, 111., became associate proprietor with Mr. 
Church, the other member of the firm, the present 
writer, devoting himself entirely to editorial work, 
with such added service as the exigencies of the en- 
terprise might make needful, Mr. Church still shar- 
ing the responsibilities of that department. At the 
time when those who had inaugurated this virtu- 
ally new enterprise and whose names are given 
above, transferred the charge of it to their succes- 
sors, Mr. Edward Goodman, a young man recently 
from England, was already engaged in seeking to 
extend its circulation, traveling extensively in that 



JOURNALISM 387 

behalf in Southern Illinois and in Iowa. Mr. 
Childs, after a brief period of connection with the 
paper, preferring the pastorate, Mr. Goodman suc- 
ceeded him in the proprietorship, and so began that 
influential connection with the paper which has con- 
tinued until the present time. Mr. Goodman was 
born at Clipstone, Northamptonshire, England, in 
1830. He became a Christian in 1846, and was 
baptized at the age of sixteen. Determining to 
make for himself a career in America, he came to 
this country and to Chicago in 1852, where he be- 
came almost at once associated with the new jour- 
nalistic enterprise in the manner described above. 

With Mr. Church and Mr. Goodman as proprie- 
tors, and their associate giving his time chiefly to 
editorial work, the paper, as " The Christian Times, ' ? 
was presented to the denomination of the Northwest 
as a candidate for confidence and support. It en- 
tered heartily into measures for promoting the in- 
terests of the denomination in the several States and 
Territories where churches were being planted, As- 
sociations and State organizations formed, with edu- 
cational institutions planned and begun. Many 
matters on this field were still in controversy. The 
slavery question was steadily growing in the inten- 
sity of its bearing upon national and all other in- 
terests. Bible revision was in the field as a cause of 
division, sectional and State interests had to be con- 
ciliated, with meanwhile the natural competition of 



388 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

papers in the East and South as a constant obstacle 
to increasing circulation. The paper, nevertheless, 
although with no other support than that furnished 
by itself, held on its way, demanding much of sacri- 
fice on the part of those conducting it, but reward- 
ing them in the steady growth of its constituency, 
and the evidence of usefulness in many lines of jour- 
nalistic service. 

It was perhaps natural that both in the earlier 
and the later period of the history we here especially 
record, other papers should be established in dif- 
ferent parts of the field, either as State organs, or as 
representing views of brethren especially interested 
in some phase of controversy. It was thus mainly in 
the interest of Bible revision, while that question was 
still pending, as represented in the American Bible 
Union, that " The Illinois Baptist " was established 
at Bloomington, by Rev. H. J. Eddy. After some 
years of continuance this enterprise was abandoned, 
and the paper united with the paper at Chicago. In 
Southern Illinois other like ventures were entered 
upon from time to time in the course of years, one 
of them, " The Baptist Banner," in the hands of 
Rev. "W. P. Throgmorton, attaining to a consider- 
able circulation, with a very decided influence over 
the field of its circulation in behalf of a strong view 
of fundamental Baptist principle. The paper was 
finally united with that at St. Louis, Mr. Throg- 
morton himself becoming pastor at Louisiana, Mo. 



JOURNALISM 389 

The chief events in the way of consolidation of 
papers established as State organs, or for other pur- 
poses, were these which follow : " The Witness " at 
Indianapolis, established by Rev. M. G. Clarke, as 
mentioned above, at which time the name " Chris- 
tian Times " was changed to that of " Christian 
Times and Witness " ; " The Michigan Christian 
Herald," as also previously mentioned, the name of 
the consolidated paper then becoming that which it 
has since retained, " The Standard " ; " The En- 
sign," established much later at Minneapolis, and 
ably conducted for several years by Rev. Lemuel 
Moss, D. d. In 1893 this paper also was united 
with " The Standard." A paper at Topeka, Kansas, 
named "The Western Baptist," and another named 
" The Chronicle," at Kansas City, Kansas, held for 
some years a limited field in Kansas and contiguous 
States. These, also, finding that changed conditions 
in the maintenance of newspapers, and other causes, 
were against them, in the end were discontinued ; 
" The Chronicle " being sold to " The Central Bap- 
tist" of St. Louis, while the other paper named 
transferred its list to "The Standard," under ar- 
rangement to that effect with its editor, Rev. L. H. 
Holt. 

In the year 1875 an important change was made in 
the proprietorship of the paper, involving also, for a 
time, change in the associate editorship. In that year 
the proprietary interest of Mr. Church in the paper 



390 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

was purchased by Kev. J. S. Dickerson, D. d., who 
became also associate editor. His deeply lamented 
death, in the year following, removed from the field 
of Baptist journalism one from whom much had 
been expected in that service, both because of his 
unusual adaptations to such service, and because of 
a record already made in it as associated with Dr. 
M. B. Anderson in " The New York Recorder " in 
1850, and later in connection with the Philadelphia 
" Christian Chronicle." In 1861 he became pastor 
of the Second Baptist Church in Wilmington, Del., 
rendering important service during the war in con- 
nection with the Christian Commission. In 1865 
he was called to the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, 
Pittsburgh, Pa., and in 1870 to the South Baptist 
Church, Boston ; coming from that charge to Chi- 
cago in 1875. His health was already in a decline, 
and after less than a year of connection with the 
paper he died in May, 1876, his loss being keenly 
felt by a wide circle of admirers and friends. 

The second wife of Dr. Dickerson was Miss 
Emma R. Richardson, daughter of Prof. J. H. 
Richardson, so long professor of Latin at Hamilton, 
and afterward in the University of Rochester. Dr. 
Dickerson's proprietorship in " The Standard," upon 
his death, passed to his widow, his son, Mr. J. Spen- 
cer Dickerson, becoming, after a few years, a third 
proprietor, the proprietors all sharing actively with 
the editor in conducting the paper in its several de- 



JOURNALISM 391 

partments. In 1893 Mr. J. S. Dickerson accepted 
the position of managing editor of the " Graphic," 
an illustrated paper in Chicago, and after two years 
took the same position on " The Baptist Union," 
though still retaining his proprietary interest in " The 
Standard." In May, 1895, he became managing 
editor of " The Standard." 

Mr. Church, at the time his interest in the paper 
was transferred in the manner described, had held 
his connection with it during twenty-two years, a 
critical period in its history. His service had been 
in all departments of it, with much time given also 
to travel in its interest, and attendance upon State 
and local meetings far and wide throughout the 
West. It had been a thorough consecration of 
means and time and talent to a service highly im- 
portant to the denomination, with the gratifying con- 
sciousness of having shared with others in placing 
the paper upon what might be hoped to be an en- 
during basis ; and this with no aid from any public 
source whatever, other than that which came in the 
growing numbers of its constituency. 

Of those sharing in the work of the paper we may 
name Mr. James O. Brayman, a valued worker in 
its editorial department during many years, and up 
to the very time of his death : Dr. William C. 
Richards, yielding like aid in editorial work during 
a brief period; Mr. B. F. Jacobs, by whom, first of 
all, the Sunday-school lessons were furnished, " The 



392 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Standard " leading the way in that form of publica- 
tion as among all religious weeklies throughout the 
country. Mr. Jacobs was followed in the same de- 
partment under successive arrangements to that 
effect by Dr. W. E. Harper, Prof. E. S. Colwell, of 
Denison University, Eev. J. M. Coon, and Eev. J. 
W. Weddell. Mr. Weddell had been connected 
with "The Standard " aiding in editorial work and in 
other ways since 1881. 

In August, 1893, the fortieth anniversary of the 
paper and of the connection with it of two of its con- 
ductors, took place. The occasion was improved by 
friends of the paper in various testimonials, in the 
form of correspondence, of kindly appreciation and 
fellowship, more especially on the part of not a few 
who had been friends and supporters from the time 
of its earliest beginning. 

Two other Baptist publications in Chicago should 
be mentioned in this connection : the " Baptist 
Union," in the interest of the young people's socie- 
ties, edited by F. L. Wilkins, D. d., Secretary of the 
American Baptist Young Peoples Union, and the 
" Tidings," organ of the Women's Baptist Home 
Mission Society. The former had been purchased 
as the "Young Peoples' Union," its name being 
changed later to that given above. Ably conducted 
from its inception it was an important instrument of 
service in behalf of the movement, to promote which 
it had been established. " The Tidings " conducted 



JOURNALISM 393 

by Miss M. G. Burdette, was from nearly the first 
years of the society, a swift-winged messenger of 
news and of appeal in behalf of the society's gra- 
cious mission, far and wide over the West, and to no 
small extent in the East. 

This record of Baptist journalism at Chicago, as 
its center, would be incomplete without mention of 
enterprises undertaken in periodical literature with a 
special character by Dr. William R. Harper. Dr. 
Harper came to the theological seminary at Morgan 
Park in 1879, from Denison University, where he 
had served as principal of the preparatory depart- 
ment, although with the reputation of remarkable 
qualification for service as instructor in the Semitic 
languages and literature, gained especially while a 
student at Yale University. A few years after en- 
tering upon his work at Morgan Park as professor 
of Hebrew and the cognate languages, he embarked 
in those enterprises for promoting interest in the 
study of these languages which in due time gained 
for him, while yet a young man, a distinguished 
name among Semitic scholars, both in America and 
in Europe. One, as the earliest of these enterprises, 
was the establishment at Morgan Park of " The He- 
brew Student," later " The Old Testament Student," 
a monthly magazine which in time became " The 
Old and New Testament Student," and upon the 
connection of the seminary with the University of 
Chicago, the " Biblical World," issued by the Uni- 



394 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

versity Press, with Dr. Harper still as its editor. 
Not long after "The Old Testament Student " had 
become well established, Dr. Harper began the 
" Hebraica," a quarterly, in the interest of Semitic 
study in its most advanced forms, its editor, Dr. 
Harper, having the co-operation in conducting it of 
distinguished scholars alike in America and in 
Europe. This, also, was continued at the Univer- 
sity of Chicago under the same editorship. Both 
publications, while Dr. Harper was professor at 
Yale University, following his resignation at Morgan 
Park, had been published at New Haven, the trans- 
fer being from that point to Chicago. 

It may be proper, also, to name in connection 
with this general subject other periodicals issued at 
the University Press, though secular in character : 
" The University Extension World," " The Journal 
of Geology," " The Journal of Political Economy," 
— the last two being, the one a quarterly and the 
other a bi-monthly, and " The Journal of Sociology," 
also a quarterly, all conducted with remarkable 
ability. To these may be added the " University 
Weekly," conducted by students. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE LATER HISTORY 

A TIMELY and useful organization in which all 
■*-*- the five States included in our history par- 
ticipated was the Baptist Ministers' Aid Society, at 
first incorporated in 1885 under the laws of the 
State of Indiana. The need of such a provision 
had come to be very strongly felt. In States like 
these during whose earlier history ministerial support 
had been more or less as a matter of necessity, quite 
inadequate in numerous instances, as indeed is always 
too much the case, it could not fail to happen that 
the need of such a society would be emphasized by 
facts appealing strongly alike to sympathy and to 
the sense of justice. 

In the summer of the year named above, a meet- 
ing of brethren from several of the States occurred 
at Logansport, Ind., Rev. H. L. Stetson being at 
the time the pastor there. At this meeting steps 
were taken toward an organization in aid of minis- 
ters incapacitated for service by age or other causes, 
the enterprise being there fully decided upon and a 
committee appointed to ascertain where the most 
eligible site for a ministers' home might be found. 



396 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Meetings of this committee were held at Laporte, 
Ind., in Chicago, and in Detroit. The last named 
occurred in the summer of 1886. At this meeting 
it was learned that the trustees of Fenton Seminary, 
located at Fenton, Mich., were considering the sub- 
ject of a tender of the property of that institution 
for the purpose in contemplation. A visit to Fen- 
ton was sufficient to make the fact clear that no site 
for such a home could be more desirable. The ten- 
der was made and gladly accepted; the property in- 
cluding eleven acres of ground, to which citizens of 
Fenton added nine more, making twenty in all. 

In January, 1887, the Ministers' Aid Society was 
reorganized under the laws of the State of Michi- 
gan, with the following-named officers : President, 
Kev. H. L. Stetson, Logansport, Ind. ; vice-presi- 
dent, D. A. Waterman, Esq., of Detroit ; recording 
secretary, Rev. C. W. Barber, Fenton ; correspond- 
ing secretary, Rev. B. F. Cavins, Peru, Ind. ; treas- 
urer, J. E. Howard, Esq., Detroit ; auditor, H. B. 
Latourette, Fenton. 

Rev. E. L. Scofield, d. d., for some years con- 
nected with a similar enterprise near New York 
City, had interested himself much in what was thus 
undertaken in behalf of the aged and infirm minis- 
try of the West, and for a time represented the so- 
ciety with encouraging success in bringing its claims 
to the attention of the churches. In January, 1888, 
Dr. Scofield having resigned, Rev. A. E. Mather, 



THE LATER HISTORY 397 

D. D., was chosen financial secretary and general 
manager of the home, a position which, at the date 
of our history, he still occupies. 

The story of the work under his care is an inter- 
esting one. The home was opened in October, 1888. 
During the years since elapsing, twenty-five persons 
have been received and cared for as inmates. The 
society has also given either entire or partial sup- 
port to one hundred and forty-four persons outside 
the home. Seven acres of land, additional to what 
was received in donation have been purchased, so 
that the home now has a farm of twenty-seven acres, 
the value of the property being estimated at $50,- 
000. The society has received into its treasury an 
aggregate of about $80,000, of which $15,000 con- 
stitutes an endowment fund. The expenditures in 
buildings, furnishing, and maintaining the home and 
supporting beneficiaries, or in the entire work of the 
society, have been $64,300. 

It was a fortunate thing for the enterprise that 
Dr. Mather, so soon after its inception, was found 
available as leader and executive officer. He had 
been long identified with Western interests, the 
family to which he belonged having removed to 
Michigan from St. Lawrence County, N. Y., in 
1836. His service in the ministry began at Mount 
Clemens, Mich., in 1851, and was continued at 
Romeo, Pontiac, and later at Caro and Portland 
with excellent fruit following. During ten years, 



398 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

from 1866 onward, he served as district secretary of 
the Home Mission Society, and otherwise had been 
one of the most active men in the State, having as- 
sisted at the dedication of more than fifty houses of 
worship. The executive ability made evident in 
these several spheres of service, found opportunity 
for signal success in a position where wisdom, tact, 
and efficient sympathy were qualities so indispen- 
sable. 

The society of whose opening history we make 
this brief record, comprehending in its field the 
five States with which our narrative is chiefly con- 
cerned, supplied a most fitting supplement to other 
forms of State organization. It represented an in- 
terest common to them all, and afforded opportun- 
ity for joint care of a class of faithful laborers too 
often neglected, if not forgotten, in those late years 
of life when the effects of toil and self-sacrifice 
and hardship are felt in a way to make " the fellow- 
ship of suffering" a reality to them, and a just 
ground of. appeal to those whom they have served 
long and well. 

It is not possible to speak definitely of the work 
of Baptists in charitable lines, for they are often as- 
sociated so closely with other denominations. Wher- 
ever charitable institutions exist, members of Bap- 
tist churches are found upon their Boards and ac- 
tively engaged in promoting their interests. Such a 
work distinctively Baptist has, however, within a few 



THE LATER HISTORY 399 

years been begun in Chicago, that of the Baptist 
Hospital. The first president of its board was Col. 
W. G. Bentley, who was succeeded by Rev. H. A. 
Delano, d. d., and in 1895 Rev. L. H. Austin was 
elected to this position, with A. C. Cowperthwaite, 
M. D., as superintendent of the hospital, and E. E. 
Yaughan, m. d., president of the training school for 
nurses. Besides the Board of directors, there is a 
Board of lady managers, of which Mrs. L. Brock- 
way is the secretary. Interest in this hospital is 
constantly increasing, and it will soon be located in 
permanent and commodious quarters, as the build- 
ing formerly occupied by the theological seminary 
has been leased by the Theological Union to the 
hospital management for a term of years. Twelve 
thousand dollars has. been expended in refitting the 
building and making it perfectly adapted to the 
needs of a hospital. We may also here mention the 
very recent establishment of a Baptist Orphanage, 
under the care of Rev. E. L. Schofield, at Downer's 
Grove, a suburb of Chicago. 

Belonging also to the later history on this field is 
the origination of that unique form of service which 
may be designated as Baptist chapel car evangelism. 
In the year 1889 Rev. Wayland Hoyt, d. d., and 
his brother, Mr. Colgate Hoyt, of New York, the 
latter connected with the management of the Wis- 
consin Central Railway, were riding upon the branch 
of that road which connected Duluth with St. Paul. 



400 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The conversation of the two brothers turned much 
upon the religious destitution of that portion of the 
far Northwest opened up to population by such rail- 
roads as the Wisconsin Central and the Northern 
Pacific. Difficulties in the way of reaching with re- 
ligious instruction the nascent communities along 
these lines of road, were referred to with the fact 
that even where religious work had been begun, it 
was almost inevitably, in the circumstances, tran- 
sient and evanescent. Mention having been made 
of a recent effort by the Roman Catholic archbishop 
in that quarter to carry on work by means of a " ca- 
thedral car," which, however, had proved abortive, 
Dr. Hoyt suddenly turned to his brother with the 
proposal that he, with other men of wealth, friends 
of his, and engaged in like interests, should put it 
in the power of the Baptists to institute a similar 
method for a truer evangelism. The suggestion was 
entertained with much favor and some details of the 
undertaking discussed. 

While the origination of this method of frontier 
work is to be held due to the two men thus named, 
its success, under a marked divine blessing, has been 
made sure by the enterprising zeal of the Publica- 
tion Society in availing itself of such an opportu- 
nity, and the self-devotion and self-sacrifice of those 
in charge. 

Returning again to the history of church growth, 
it will be remembered that in a former chapter, the 



THE LATER HISTORY 401 

later histoiy was given of churches in Cincinnati 
and Chicago. At this point some indication of de- 
nominational growth in other cities will be appro- 
priate, so far as it can be seen in numbers as they 
now stand. Representative figures only can of 
course be given. Beginning upon the eastern bor- 
der, the impulse toward larger growth in Detroit 
would seem to have been felt about 1860, when the 
Woodward Avenue Church was organized. The 
First Church had held the ground during the in- 
terval of thirty-three years since its own organization 
in 1827, a second church being formed in 1838. 
The long-continued and fruitful pastorate of Rev. Z. 
Grenell, D. D., crowned a succession of faithful men, 
among whom we find Dr. Nathaniel Colver, Rev. C. 
K. Colver, Rev. John Mathews, and others. The 
Woodward Avenue Church, brilliantly led during 
many years by its late pastor, Dr. C. R. Henderson, 
now of the University of Chicago, and its present 
one, Rev. D. D. MacLaurin, is, like the First 
Church, known among the foremost churches in the 
West. From 1878 the Twelfth Street Church, its 
present pastor Rev. W. H. Stedman ; Eighteenth 
Street, from 1877, Rev. T. B. Caldwell, pastor; 
Clinton Avenue, 1880, its pastor Rev. S. A. Be- 
man ; Warren Avenue, 1887, with Rev. John 
Mathews, as first pastor; The North, 1888, with 
Rev. R. E. Manning ; Scolton Avenue, Rev. W. A. 
Rupert ; these, with two German churches, First and 
2a 



402 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

Second, dating respectively from 1864 and 1884, 
and one Negro, the Shiloh, represent Baptist growth 
in the beautiful city where they exist. They num- 
ber, including two of the German nationality, thir- 
teen working churches, with a membership of not far 
from three thousand. 

Those familiar with Baptist history in Milwaukee 
for many years find reason for much rejoicing over 
the record made in that city during the last quarter 
of a century. Milwaukee has at our present date six 
English-speaking churches, with two German, and a 
total membership of one thousand two hundred and 
twenty-nine. The pastors in 1894 were : at the 
First Church, F. Evans, D. d., its membership three 
hundred ; at the Tabernacle, Rev. E. W. White, 
membership three hundred and thirty-four ; South, 
Rev. W. A. McKillop, three hundred and two ; 
Fifth, Rev. Herman Burns, one hundred and 
seventy-eight ; Immanuel, Rev. W. M. Corkery, 
sixty ; Bay View, Rev. C. M. Brodie, fifty-five ; 
the First German Church, Rev. J. W. Merkel, pas- 
tor, two hundred and eighty-six ; and the Second, 
Rev. Benj. Otto, pastor, two hundred and one. 

The First Church has, in the course of its history, 
built three houses of worship, the present one dur- 
ing the long and able ministry there of Rev. W. P. 
Hellings, D. d., at this present date pastor of the 
First Church in Omaha. Earlier pastors had been, 
Dr. M. G. Hodge, 1878-81, failure of health com- 



THE LATER HISTORY 403 

pelling his resignation, A. F. Mason, d. d., and 
dating much farther back, Drs. Fyfe and Piper. Of 
pastors who have been conspicuous leaders of Bap- 
tist enterprise in Milwaukee should be named, Dr. 
J. D. Herr, first pastor of the Tabernacle, and Rev. 
D. W. Hulburt, for many years at the South 
Church, next at Wauwatosa. 

From an early time Indianapolis has been favored 
with energetic and capable men in Baptist leader- 
ship. Some names of such have already been given. 
An important date in the history of the First Church 
is that of 1861, when Rev. H. Day, D. D., became 
pastor. The present excellent house of worship was 
built during his ministry there, and in all ways the 
work under his leadership had signal advancement. 
"During the darkest of war times/' writes Dr. 
Stott, "his church met in the Masonic Hall. At 
the close of the war he led his church to undertake 
a building. It was by far the best house in Indian- 
apolis at the time. It moved other denominations 
to erect better houses, and Baptist churches through- 
out the State felt the same impulse." The later 
pastorate of H. C. Mabie, d. d., is also deserving of 
conspicuous mention. Perhaps the earliest steps 
toward active enlistment of young people in Chris- 
tian service, at least on this field, was his organiza- 
tion of his own younger members as a "Yoke- 
Fellows Society," the example, under his inspiration, 
being followed by other churches in the State and 



404 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

elsewhere. This movement antedates the Christian 
Endeavor and should not be left out of view when 
the history of one of the most significant chapters in 
modern evangelism comes to be written. The suc- 
cession of capable men in the Indianapolis First 
Church ends at the date of the present record in the 
incumbency of Rev. W. F. Taylor, whose removal 
to Seattle, Washington, occurred in the summer of 
1894. 

Incidents in the later educational history of these 
States should be given as we close. At Franklin 
College, Indiana, the commencement for 1894 gained 
especial interest from the fact that with the college 
year then closing, President Stott completed twenty- 
five years of incumbency in the position so held. 
The " History of Twenty-five Years " given by him 
on the occasion interested greatly the large audience 
assembled to hear him. The class graduating at the 
college was the largest in its history, numbering 
thirty, with nine from the preparatory department. 

The commencement at Denison University in June, 
1894, was made an occasion of even unwonted en- 
thusiasm by the dedication of two new buildings 
presented to the university by generous benefactors : 
the Science Hall, costing forty thousand dollars, by 
Mr. E. J. Barney, of Dayton, and the Doane 
Academy Building, presented by Mr. W. H. Doane, 
of Cincinnati. The address on occasion of the 
former dedication was by Prof. J. J. Stevenson, of 



THE LATER HISTORY 405 

the University of Chicago, and the latter by Presi- 
dent William R. Harper, whose career as an educa- 
tor had begun as principal of the Preparatory De- 
partment at Denison. In connection with the open- 
ing of the Science Hall, the work of the university 
in science was reorganized upon an enlarged basis, 
with four professors to give to it their whole time. 

The commencement for 1894 at Kalamazoo Col- 
lege also afforded, in' the interest shown and in the 
character of the exercises, much of satisfaction to 
friends of the college present. The baccalaureate 
sermon was by Rev. S. Haskell, d. d., the address 
before the alumni by Prof. Stuart, of Lake Forest 
University, 111., for several years a professor in the 
Old University of Chicago, and the address to the 
students by Prof. B. S. Terry, of the present Uni- 
versity of Chicago. 

At the 1894 commencement of Shurtleff College, 
the president, Adin A. Kendrick, d. d., closed an 
incumbency of twenty-two years by presenting his 
resignation to the Board of trustees. Dr. Kendrick, 
a graduate of Middlebury College, in Vermont, 
after a theological course at Rochester, following a 
brief period of occupation as a lawyer, which pro- 
fession had at first been chosen, held important pas- 
torates at Chicago and St. Louis, entering upon ser- 
vice as President of Shurtleff College in 1872. It is 
significant of the spirit in which his administration 
had been conducted, that during the whole period of 



406 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

his presidency there had been no instance of a di- 
vided vote on any question in the Board of trustees. 
The college during his incumbency had made con- 
stant and marked progress, as indicated on a former 
page in this history. His resignation was accepted 
with great reluctance, and only after urgent effort 
to induce its recall. 

A successor was found in Principal A. K. De 
Blois, ph. d., of the St. Martin's Seminary, in New 
Brunswick. He came to his new duties with the 
highest testimonials from leading educators and with 
auspices in all ways most encouraging. Another 
important change in the faculty was the election of 
P. L. M. Castle, son of the late Prof. C. L. Castle, 
as principal of the College Academy. 

The great event as connected with the Summer 
Convocation, 1894, at the University of Chicago, 
was the dedication of the Ryerson Physical Labora- 
tory. This stately building, erected at a cost of two 
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, was on 
this occasion presented to the university by the mu- 
nificent donor, Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, of Chicago, 
president of the Board of trustees, in memory of his 
deceased father. The presentation address was by 
Mr. Ryerson, President Harper following in re- 
sponse, and accepting the generous gift in behalf of 
the university. The Convocation address, by Prof. 
Michelson, of the University, having for its subject, 
"Some of the Objects and Methods of Physical 



THE LATER HISTORY 407 

Science," was a further recognition of the value of 
the gift. The provision of another million dollars, 
based on conditional offers of Mr. John D. Rocke- 
feller and Mr. Ryerson, the condition being, after 
most strenuous and persevering effort, successfully 
met, stimulated still further the enthusiasm of the 
occasion. This addition to the resources of the uni- 
versity was announced as for supply of apparatus 
and other equipment. It raises the entire assets of 
university to the amount of not far from eight mil- 
lion dollars. 

One note of sadness mingled with the general re- 
joicing of the occasion, announcement of the death 
of Ezekiel G. Robinson, d. d., Professor of Christian 
Ethics, and of Rev. B. F. Simpson, Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Theology. We quote from the Convoca- 
tion Statement of the president : " The history of 
the year's work, otherwise a most joyous one, has 
been saddened at its very close by the death of two 
members of the university staff. One, our oldest 
professor, a man who for half a century had done 
valiant service in the cause of truth and education ; 
the other, one of our younger men, just entering 
upon a career of the greatest promise. Both were 
ordained ministers and preachers of exceptional 
power. In both cases the fatal disease had been at 
work for some time, although at the end, the depar- 
ture was so sudden as to be a shock to every one. 
Both had entirely finished the work of the year. 



408 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN WESTERN STATES 

The lives of these two men have entered into the 
spirit of the institution. Professor Robinson brought 
to us the best work of his life. His presence, dur- 
ing these two years, was a constant source of inspi- 
ration and helpfulness." 

A few months later, Dr. James Robinson Boise, 
the beloved scholar and teacher, entered into rest. 
In a memorial address, Dr. Galusha Anderson said 
with eloquent truth : " His earthly work is done, 
well done. Yet his influence continues. He being 
dead yet speaketh. The things that are seen and 
heard and felt are temporal — they cease to be ; 
but the things that no eye sees, nor ear hears, nor 
imagination paints, are eternal — they never cease 
to be. God is not seen, he is eternal. The influ- 
ence which goes forth from a good man and his 
work is not discerned by the eye nor the ear, but 
it is undying." With these brief tributes to the 
memory of dear brethren, we bring our narra- 
tive to a close. The workers die, but the work 
remains. 



SOURCES 



" The Conspiracy of Pontiac." By 
Francis Parkman. 

Appleton's " Cyclopaedia of Amer- 
ican Biography," article, 
" George Rogers Clark." 

"Illinois, Historical and Statisti- 
cal." By Hon. John Moses. 

"Journal and Messenger," Cin- 
cinnati, Editorial, July, 1889. 

Benedict's " History of the Bap- 
tists," article, "Ohio." 

" History of the Miami Associa- 
tion." By J. H. Dunlevy. 

Lecture upon the Lemen Family. 
By Rev. B. B. Hamilton. 

Correspondence of Rev. W. F. 
Boyakin. 

Paper read before the Baptist 
church in Dixon, 111., by Mr. J. 
T. Little. 

Correspondence of Rev. Daniel 
Shepardson, Granville, Ohio. 

Correspondence of Prof. Franklin 
Johnson, D. d. 

Sprague's " Annals of the Amer- 
ican Baptist Pulpit." 

" Fifty Years of Michigan Baptist 
History." By Rev. S. Haskell, 
d. d.,1886. 

Correspondence of Rev. James De- 
lany. 

" Baptist Home Missions in North 
America," Jubilee Volume. By 
Dr. H. L. Morehouse, 1882. 

A paper upon "The Men who 



Wrought," read at the semi-cen- 
tennial of the Michigan State 
Convention, 1886, by Rev. A. E. 
Mather, d. d. 
Address upon ' ' Home Mission 
Pioneers," at the Denver anni- 
versaries, 1893, by H. C. Woods, 

D. D. 

A paper read at the Michigan semi- 
centennial, 1886, by T. M. Shan- 
afelt, d. d. 

Annual report of the American 
Baptist Home Mission Society 
for 1839. 

Howe's " History of Ohio," quoted 
by Isaac Smucker, in "History 
of the Welsh Settlement in Lick- 
ing County, Ohio." 

Historical paper read at the roll- 
call of the Dixon Baptist Church, 
at its Fiftieth Anniversary, Oc- 
tober 24, 1893, by Prof. E. C. 
Smith. 

" The Western Christian." 

Mr. George E. Stevens, in Centen- 
nial Supplement of the " Journal 
and Messenger," June 7, 1888. 

Correspondence of President W. 
T. Stott, of Franklin College. 

Historical discourse, by Rev. S. W. 
Duncan, d. d., at the semi-cen- 
tennial of the Ninth Street Bap- 
tist Church, Cincinnati. 

Historical and biographical 
sketches of the First Baptist 
409 



410 



SOUECES 



Church in Detroit, at the close 
of its first half-century, by S. 
Haskell, d. d. 

Correspondence of Rev. David 
Spencer, d. d. 

"Baptist Cyclopaedia," p. 270. 

" Census Bulletin," for 1893. 

" American Church History." By 
Dr. D. H. Carroll. 

" Ohio Baptist Manual," for 1893. 

"Twenty Years' History of the 
Woman's Baptist Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society of the West." 
By Mrs. A. M. Bacon, 1891. 

"Woman's Work and Organiza- 
tion in Michigan," a paper read 
by Mrs. L. B. Austin, of Detroit, 
at the semi-centennial, 1886. 

" Records of Annual Meetings of 
the Ohio Baptist State Conven- 
tion." By Rev. George E. Leon- 



ard, d. d. Compiled from original 
records preserved in the library 
of Denison University. 

An historical paper read by Rev. 
David Spencer, d. d., at the State 
anniversaries in Merton, Wis- 
consin, in 1893 ; also papers by 
Drs. J. D. Herr and M. J. Hodge, 
read at the semi-centennial of 
Wisconsin Baptists, held at Wau- 
kesha in 1888. 

A paper by Prof. F. W. Shepard- 
son, of the University of Chi- 
cago, in the Fifth General Cata- 
logue of Denison University, 
1893. 

"The Baptists and the National 
Centenary." American Baptist 
Publication Society, 1876, article, 
"Home Missions." 



INDEX 



Academies : the planting of, 355 ; 
the value of, 356 , experience of, 
in Indiana, 357-359 ; in Illinois, 
359, 360 ; in Ohio, 360-362 ; in Wis- 
consin, 362-364. 

Aid Society, Ministers' : estab- 
lished, 395 ; reorganized, 396 ; 
continued history of, 395-399. 

Allen, Rev. Thomas, 207. 

Ambrose, Rev. J. E. : sketch of, 
48, 49. 

Anderson, Dr. Galusha A. : con- 
nected with Old University of 
Chicago, 288-290; professor at 
Morgan Park, 311 ; quotation 
from, 408. 

Association : % Miami, organized, 31 ; 
Illinois River, organized, 50 ; 
Springfield, organized, 100 ; Bap- 
tist General, of Illinois, 228. 

Aurora ; center of foreign missions, 
57. 

Bailey, Rev. G. S. : originator of 
pastors' conferences, 239 ; secre- 
tary of Chicago Theological Sem- 
inary, 346, 347. 

Baptist history : begun in Ohio, 
26, 117 ; Illinois, 26 ; Indiana, 26 ; 
initial leaf of, 26, 27 ; and mis- 
sionary enterprise, 120. 

Baptists : number of, in Ohio. 81 ; 
growth of, in Milwaukee, 115 ; 
and Disciples, 135; in Chicago, 
155; ministry of, in Cincinnati, 



149-153 ; ministry of, in Chicago, 
149-162 ; general union meeting 
of, 224 ; an unwonted proposal 
to, 302. 

Baptists, Western : indebted to 
pioneer laymen, 33 ; men prom- 
inent among, in Ohio, 36-39 ; 
pioneers of, in Illinois, 48; pio- 
neers of, in Michigan, 61, 62; 
prominent ones in Wisconsin, 
67 ; interest of East in, 74 ; true 
to fundamentals, 91 ; divisive 
influences among, 91 ; creed of 
portion of, 92 ; certain hinder- 
ing elements among, 122; and 
Campbellism, 135 ; and anti- 
slavery, 137; co-operating in 
foreign missions, 191 ; indebted- 
ness of, to Home Mission Society, 
196 ; general convention of, 330 ; 
educational movements of, 335 ; 
educational development of, 350 ; 
and educational institutions, 
355, 356; interested in journal- 
ism, in Michigan, 375-380. 

Baptist Weekly Journal : founded 
by Mr. Stevens, 37. 

Binney, Dr. J. G. : mentioned, 166, 
167. 

Blackall, Rev. C. R. : connected 
with publication work, 248. 

Burroughs, Rev. J. C. : pastor 
at Chicago, 154 ; officially con, 
nected with The (old) Univer, 
sity of Chicago, 281-288. 

411 



412 



INDEX 



Campbell. Alexander: visits Cin- 
cinnati, 105; causes division, 
105; disciples of, 133; hope of, 
134 ; controversy connected with, 
136. 

Canada : relation of, to France, 9 ; 
emigrants from, 10 ; French pos- 
session of, 14, 

Chapel Car Evangelism : organ- 
ized, 399, 400. 

Chicago: log hut erected at, 13; 
as a military post, 19 ; growth of, 
19 ; first Baptist sermon preached 
in, 61 ; early history of, 94 ; 
Allen B. Freeman missionary at, 
95; church organized at, 96; 
details in history of, 98 ; resump- 
tion of history at, 154-62; Bap- 
tist ministry in, 149-62; Young 
People's Union organized in, 
256; organization of Old Uni- 
versity at, 282: history of Old 
University at, 280-91; preferred 
for new university, 301 ; meeting 
of Education Society in, 303; 
new university organized in, 
303; making gifts to Chicago 
University, 306; convention in 
interests of education held at, 
340; theological seminary at, 
341; development of seminary 
at, 342-51 ; great meeting at, 353 ; 
struggling Baptist paper at, 382 ; 
brighter prospect for journalism 
in, 384 ; Baptist hospital in, 399. 

Church : Columbia, founded at 
C in c i n n a t i, 27 ; Columbia, 
marked by monument, 28; 
planted at Silver Creek, 54 ; first 
organized in Wisconsin, 66; of 
Indians organized, 66 ; at Janes- 
ville organized, 72 ; at New De- 
sign, 82; First Baptist, at Chi- 
cago founded, 96 ; Second, organ- 



ized at, 98 ; at Springfield, 99 ; 
at Peoria, 102 ; founded in Ohio, 
104 ; Ninth Street, at Cincinnati, 
106; organized at Detroit, 109; 
organized at Milwaukee, 113 ; 
First, at Cleveland celebrating 
semi - centennial, 116 ; growth 
considered, 140, 141 ; debt, 145 ; 
Ninth Street, Cincinnati, 149-153 ; 
pastors of First, at Chicago, 155- 
159 ; at Dayton, Ohio, 167 ; organ- 
ized at Upper Alton, 170 ; semi- 
centennial of, at Alton, 171. 

Churches: organized in Illinois, 
50 ; organized in Indiana, 59 ; 
some in Wisconsin named, 67; 
members of, given in 1832, 80 ; an 
example of their founding, 86 ; 
early planting of, 94; in Illi- 
nois, 99 ; organized in Ohio, 104 ; 
represented at recognition in 
Detroit, 109 ; in Illinois Baptist 
Union, 137 ; in " Friends of Hu- 
manity," 139 ; seeking relief from 
debt, 145, 146 ; in Cincinnati, 149- 
152 ; in Chicago, 154-162 ; at differ- 
ent points in Illinois, 174 ; aided 
by Home Missionary Society, 197, 
198; weak in Indiana, 229; 
growth of in Wisconsin, 237. 

Church growth : thought respect- 
ing, 141 ; retarded, 144 ; laymen 
active in, 147 ; later instances of, 
400-404. 

Cincinnati : Affording an example, 
18 ; passage pertaining to, 103 ; 
original site of, 104 ; church or- 
ganized at, 104; Alexander 
Campbell visits, 105 ; church at, 
rent, 105; S. W. Lynd at, 106; 
Ninth Street Church organized 
at, 106 ; pastors of Ninth Street 
Church in, 149-153 ; center of 
Mission Society, 221 ; commercial 



INDEX 



413 



center, 329 ; important conven- 
tion held in, 330 ; " Weekly Jour- 
nal" started in, 365. 

Civil War: ordeal of, 140; the 
years antedating, 144 ; influenc- 
ing Chicago University, 28G ; 
Franklin College closed by, 313 ; 
interfering with institutions at 
Chicago, 341. 

Clark, Col. Geo. Rogers : enter- 
prises of, 14 ; winning territory 
from French, 19 ; old soldiers of, 
20. 

Cleveland, First Church: organ- 
ized, 116 ; pastors of, 117 ; Dr. 
Strong, pastor at, 118 ; Hon. J. M. 
Hoyt, member of, 118. 

Comstock, Rev. Elkanah, 63. 

Colby, Rev. H. F., pastor at Day- 
ton, 168. 

Cole, Rev. Jirah D., 204-205. 

Controversy : with Campbellites, 
136; with Free Mission Society, 
192-194 ; concerning Bible Union, 
194-195 ; still prevailing, 387. 

Convention : New York State, 
spoken of, 62-64 ; Ohio State, or- 
ganized, 81, 222 ; Northwestern, 
organized, 225 ; Northwestern, 
consolidated, 227-228; of South- 
ern Illinois, 229 ; Indiana State, 
229 ; plan of Indiana State, 230 ; 
Michigan State, 231-234; New 
York, model of Michigan, 232; 
Michigan, well planned, 294 ; of 
Michigan interested in educa- 
tion, 277, 279, 280; Michigan 
State, and journalism, 375-380. 

Corwin, Judge Matthias : brief 
sketch of, 33. 

Covington : seminary founded at, 
332. 

Cressy, Rev. Timothy : sketch of, 



Cutting, Dr. S. S. : connected with 
Education Society, 295. 

Dearborn Observatory, 291. 

Delaney, Rev. James : character- 
istics of, 68 ; quotations from, 68, 
69, 71, 72 ; description of, 70. 

Detroit: passing into American 
hands, 18 ; beginnings of Baptist 
history in, 64-108; Baptist 
church organized at, 108 ; First 
Church of, 109 ; discouragements 
at, 110 ; pastorates at, 111 ; 
church growth in, 401-402. 

Disciples (Campbellites) : men- 
tioned, 133; doctrines of, 134; 
and Baptists, 135. 

Dixon : creed of church at, 92 ; 
origin of name of, 93. 

Dodge, Rev. Josiah : mentioned, 
44. 

Douglas, Hon. S. A. : giving site of 
University of Chicago, 281. 

Dunlevy, Judge : short sketch of, 
31-33. 

Education: movements for, 259, 
260; resolution for, 260; aid so- 
licited for, 260 ; consultation in 
the interests of, 261 ; Granville 
College organized for, 264 ; strug- 
gles for, 265 ; movements for, in 
Illinois, 266 ; connection of Rev. 
John M. Peck with, 266 ; con- 
nection of Hubbell Loomis with, 
267, 268 ; institutions for purpose 
of, 270, 271 ; of rising ministry, 
275; commission in interest of, 
organized, 295; Society organ- 
ized, 296-298 ; Society meeting at 
Chicago, 303; faithful men con- 
nected with, 309 ; convention in 
the interest of, 330; Western, So- 
ciety formed, 332; theological, 



414 



INDEX 



at Kalamazoo and Shurtleff, 336, 
337 ; convention in the interests 
of, 338 ; Northwestern, Society or- 
ganized, 339; Chicago Theologi- 
cal Seminary opened in interest 
of, 345 ; academies in connection 
with, 355-357; later incidents 
connected with; 404-408. 

Elements, opposing : existing, 120 ; 
anti-mission and anti-Sunday- 
school, 121, 122; in "Two-seed 
Doctrine," 124 ; defection caused 
by, 135. 

Evarts, Rev. W. W. : pastor at 
Chicago, 155 ; church location 
changed under, 156. 

Ewing High School and College, 
292. 

Foreign Missions: Aurora, center 
of, 57 ; influencing home, 74 ; 
among Indians, 185 ; Western 
Baptists co-operating in, 191 ; 
Western work in, 203 ; workers 
for, 204-209 ; among women, 209- 
214. 

Franklin: an educational center, 
164 ; pastors at, 165 ; organization 
of Manual Labor Institute at, 
270; college chartered at, 211; 
presidents of college at, 313-315 ; 
recent commencement of col- 
lege at, 404. 

Freeman, Rev. Allen B. ' men- 
tioned, 48; finishing studies at 
Hamilton, 95 ; accepting an ap- 
pointment to Chicago, 95 ; Ordi- 
nation of, 96; early death of, 
97, 98. 

Free Mission Society : position of, 
192; controversy with, 193, 194; 
results of agitation of, 194. 

French adventure and coloniza- 
tion, 9. 



Friends of Humanity : association 
so named, 139. 

Gano, Rev. Stephen : visiting Ohio, 
27 ; baptizing at Columbia, 29. 

Gates, Rev. F. T. : and education 
society, 298, 299; and Chicago 
University, 302. 

Going, Dr. Jonathan : drawn 
toward needs of West, 75; re- 
signing at Worcester, 80; esti- 
mate of destitute churches by, 
80 ; application to, 95 ; interested 
in higher education, 263. 

Goodman, Edward, 387. 

Goodspeed, Dr. T. W. : connected 
with New University of Chicago, 
305 ; sketch of, 348. 

Granville : settlement of, 87-89 ; 
an educational center, 169, 170 ; 
resolutions adopted at, 263 ; col- 
lege at, 264 ; list of presidents of 
college at, 308-310 ; sketches of 
professors of college at, 323-325 ; 
academy at, 361 ; recent com- 
mencement of Denison Univer- 
sity at, 404. 

Haigh, Rev. Wm. M., 201. 

Hamilton, Rev. B. B.: quoted from, 
42 ; referred to, 45 ; sketch of, 47. 

Harper, Dr. W. R. : mentioned in 
connection with New University 
enterprise, 301 ; chosen president 
of University of Chicago, 305; 
professor at Morgan Park, 349 ; 
receiving headship of Morgan 
Park Seminary, 353 ; president 
of divinity school, 354; con- 
nected with various publica- 
tions, 393, 394. 

Haskell, S., D. D. : quoted from, 
61, 62; coming to Michigan, 66. 

History, Baptist: in States con- 



INDEX 



415 



sidered, 23 ; beginning early, 26 ; 
beginning in Detroit, 64 ; in 
Michigan, 65 ; characterized by 
growth in foreign mission work, 
203. 

History : outline of, 22 ; Baptist, 
within considered States, 23. 

Holden, C. N. : mentioned, 99. 

Holman, Judge Jesse S. : spoken 
of, 56, 57. 

Home Mission Society : introduc- 
tion of, to Illinois, 48 ; connected 
with Western Baptists, 74; or- 
ganized, 77 ; annual report of, 
quoted, 87 ; help of, recognized, 
196 ; services rendered by, 196- 
198 ; men commissioned by, 197, 
198 ; district secretaries of, 199 ; 
interest of women in, 214-219; 
entering Illinois, 225 ; co-opera- 
tion with, 225 ; Board of, recom- 
mending workers, 227 ; and Edu- 
cation Society, 297. 

Home Missions : influenced by 
foreign, 74. 

Hoyt, Hon. J. M. : sketch of, 118, 
119. 

Hoyt, Dr. Wayland : at Cincinnati 
and Brooklyn, 152; connected 
with chapel car organization, 399. 

Illinois : settled, 13 ; pioneers in, 
17; organized as Territory, 22; 
admitted into Union 1818, 22; 
Baptist history begun in, 26; first 
baptisms in, 44 ; first church 
organized in, 45 ; pioneer Bap- 
tists in, 48 ; Rev. J. F. Tolman 
came to, 51; laymen active in, 
52 ; statistics for, 80 ; report of a 
missionary from, 86; first Asso- 
ciation in, 137; first Sunday- 
school in, 170 ; points of interest 
in, 174-177; State organization 



in, 223 ; Home Mission Society 
in, 225 ; movement for education 
in, 266 ; academies in, 359, 360 ; 
journalism in, 380-394. 

Illinois River Association : organ- 
ized, 50; part of State Conven- 
tion, 226. 

Indiana : settled, 13 ; set off as Ter- 
ritory, 22; admitted to Union, 
22 ; Baptist history begun in, 26 ; 
Baptist pioneers in, 54; begin- 
nings in, 54; conspicuous Bap- 
tists in, 55; laymen prominent 
in, 56 ; statistics for, 80 ; progress 
in, 163; churches in, 163-165; 
State organization in, 229 ; State 
Convention plan, 230 ; good 
results in, 231 ; educational in- 
stitutes organized in, 270, 271 ; 
Franklin College in, 313; ex- 
periences of academies in, 357- 
359 ; journalism in, 373-376 ; Min- 
isters' Aid Society established 
in, 395. 

Indianapolis : Rev. T. R. Cressey, 
pastor at, 39 ; First Baptist 
Church in, 116 ; early times in, 
116 ; Sunday-school at, 246 ; 
church growth in, 403, 404. 

Indians : dealings with, at Chicago, 
94 ; missionary effort for, 184, 185 ; 
Mr. McCoy missionary among, 
186-188 ; removed from Michi- 
gan, 190. 

Jacobs, B. F. : foremost Sunday- 
school man, 249. 

Johnson, Rev. Hezekiah: sketch 
and description of, 33-35. 

Johnson, Franklin : extract from, 
132, 133. 

" Journal and Messenger " : quoted 
from, 27; history of formation 
of, 370-374. 



416 



INDEX 



Journalism : beginning of, in Ohio, 
36; Baptist Weekly Journal 
founded in interest of, 37 ; early 
efforts in, surprising, 365 ; enter- 
prises in connection with, in 
Ohio, 366-373; in Indiana, 373- 
376; in Michigan, 375-380; in 
Illinois, 380-394 ; brighter pros- 
pect for, in Chicago, 384. 

Kalamazoo : Literary Institute at, 
272 ; land purchased at, for school 
purposes, 277; institution at, 
changed, 276 ; description of 
institution at, 279, 280; list of 
presidents of college at, 316, 317 ; 
professors at college at, 326, 327 ; 
theological education at, 336 ; 
instructors at, 336; recent com- 
mencement of, college, 405. 

Lasher, Dr. Geo. W. : connection 
of, with Ohio journalism, 372, 
373. 

Laymen : some of, named, 52 ; 
one of, named, 56; active in 
Wisconsin, 67; in Springfield 
Church, 101 ; in Michigan, 111 ; 
activity of, 146; in church 
growth, 147. 

Lee, Rev. John, 84. 

Lemen, James: mention of, 20; 
sketch of, given, 39-41 ; organiz- 
ing a church, 138. 

Lemen, James, Jr.: brief sketch of, 
46. 

Life, Western : freedom of, 90 ; 
sturdiness of, 90 ; source of best 
forms of, 93. 

Loomis, Rev. Hubbel : mentioned, 
36, 37. 

Loyalist: Movement, so called, 
252-254 ; the, paper, 254 ; Ne- 
braska workers interested in, 



movement, 253; paper, pur- 
chased by Publication Society, 
255. 
Lynd, Rev. S. W. : at Cincinnati, 
106; founding church, 107; pas- 
torate of, at Cincinnati, 108, 150. 

Massachusetts Domestic Mission- 
ary Society : mentioned, 75, 77. 

McCoy, Rev. Isaac : sketch of, 59- 
61 ; connection of, with Wilson 
Thompson, 127; missionary to 
Indians, 185; work of, among 
Indians, 186-188 ; criticism of, by 
Triennial Convention, 187. 

Miami Association : organized, 31 ; 
quotation from history of, 32, 33. 

Michigan: settled, 13; organized 
as Territory, 22; as State, 22; 
Baptist history begun in, 61; 
second ordained Baptist minis- 
ter in, 63 ; early Baptist history 
in, 65, 66 ; early church planting 
in, 78 ; statistics for, 80 ; laymen 
in, 112; points of interest in, 
178-181 ; work among Indians of, 
188 ; Indians removed from, 190 ; 
State organization in, 231-234; 
educational institutions in, 272- 
279; journalism in, 375-380. 

Milwaukee: first mention of, 20; 
laid out, 20; growth of> 21; 
first Baptist preacher in, 67; 
first church at, 113; first child 
born at, 113 ; pastorate of Mr. 
Conrad at, 113, 114 ; and pastor- 
ate of Mr. Raymond, 114, 115; 
Baptist growth in, 115; church 
growth in, 402, 403. 

Ministers : pioneer, 25 ; in Ohio, 
31; laboring in Michigan, 67; 
pioneer life of, pictured, 71, 72 ; 
character of, 76 ; itinerant, 83. 

Ministry : pioneer, 25 ; pioneer life 



INDEX 



417 



of, described, 71; labors de- 
picted, 78 ; itinerancy of, 82 ; 
question of salaried, 129, 130; 
energy of, 148 ; in Cincinnati, 
149-152 ; in Chicago, 154-162. 

Miscellany, The Baptist: begin- 
ning of journalism in Ohio, 36. 

Missionary, The: related to ex- 
plorer, 10 ; a report from, 86, 87 ; 
organizing Sunday-schools, 247. 

Missions : the subject of, 120 ; ideas 
against, 121. 

Mississippi, The : discovery of, 13 ; 
. French occupation of its banks, 
14 ; States east of, 22. 

Morehouse, Dr. H. L. : description 
from, 76 ; quoted, 82 ; originating 
Education Society, 296. 

Morgan Park : Dr. Anderson pro- 
fessor at, 311 ; theological semi- 
nary moved to, 348; develop- 
ment of seminary at, 348, 349 ; 
standing of seminary at, 350; 
commencement of seminary at, 
352 ; removal of seminary at, 353. 

Morgan, Gen. T. J. : the father of, 
59; professor at Morgan Park, 
349. 

Moses, Judge : quoted, 21. 

Ninth Street Church, Cincinnati ; 
pastors of, 149-152; illustration 
of central power of, 153 ; im- 
portant convention held in, 330. 

Northrup, Dr. Geo. W. : acting as 
president of University of Chi- 
cago, 287; sketch of, 343, 344; 
passing over Morgan Park Sem- 
inary, 353 : professor in Chicago 
divinity school, 354. 

Ohio : settled, 13 ; organized as Ter- 
ritory, 22 ; admitted to State- 
hood, 22 ; Baptist history begun 



in, 26 : perilous times in, 27 ; 
pioneer ministers in, 31 ; Rev. 
Hezekiah Johns on active in, 34 ; 
Baptists in history of, 36-39; 
State Convention organized in, 
81 ; number of Baptists in, 81 ; 
first church organized in, 104 ; 
conditions of work in, 132, 133 ; 
progress in, 166; churches and 
pastors in, 166-170 ; First Church, 
Dayton, in, 167 ; organization of 
State Convention in, 222, 223 ; 
efficiency of State organization 
in, 241 ; originating higher edu- 
cation, 259 ; organization of 
school in, proposed, 261 ; journal- 
ism in, 366-374. 

Organization : first, upon Western 
ground for mission purposes, 220 ; 
of State Convention in Ohio, 222, 
223 ; in Illinois, 223 ; in Wiscon- 
sin, 225, 234-236 ; new measures in 
State, 227 ; State, in Illinois, diffi- 
cult, 228 ; State, in Michigan, 
231-234 ; benefit of State, 240 ; of 
Young People's Union, 256; of 
school in Ohio proposed, 261 ; of 
Granville College, 264 ; of Shurt- 
leff College, 268, 269 ; of Manual 
Labor Institute at Franklin. 270 ; 
of University of Chicago, 282; 
of Educational Commission, 295 ; 
of Education Society, 295-298 ; of 
new University of Chicago, 303 ; 
of Western Education Society, 
332 ; of Northwestern Education 
Society, 339; of Baptist Theo- 
logical Union, 340 ; of seminary 
at Chicago, 341, 342 ; of acade- 
mies, 357-364 ; of Ministers' Aid 
Society, 395. 

Osgood, Dr. S. M., 205. 



2b 



Page, Rev. S. B., 200. 



418 



INDEX 



Parker, Rev. Daniel : doctrine of, 
122 ; Dr. Peck on, 123 ; early and 
later career of, 125 ; still having 
adherents, 131. 

Parkman : quoted from, 10, 11, 17. 

Pastoral Conference : origin of, 239. 

Peck, Dr. J. M. : introduced, 47 
influenced by Luther Rice, 74 
writing to Dr. Staughton, 75 
corresponding with Dr. Going, 
75 ; report from, 83 ; quotation 
from, 122, 123 ; organized church 
at Alton, 170; Sunday-school 
work of, 245 ; helping education, 
260; active in educational mat- 
ters, 266 ; quotation from, 267 ; 
associate editor of paper in Illi- 
nois, 381. 

Peoria : claiming mention, 101 ; 
date of church at, 102 ; pastor- 
ates at, 102, 103. 

Pioneer : ministers spoken of, 25 ; 
life pictured, 71, 72; history nec- 
essarily imperfect, 72 ; itiner- 
ancy described, 85 ; constancy 
developed, 90. 

Pioneers, Baptist: in Illinois, 39; 
life led by them, 45, 46 ; contem- 
porary with Home Mission So- 
ciety in Illinois, 48 ; of Indiana, 
54; when first in Michigan, 61, 
62 ; life of, pictured, 71 ; means 
of support of, 78; mode of life 
described, 78. 

Pioneers : seeking a home, 11 ; vic- 
tories of, 24; ministry of, 25; 
commemorated by monument, 
28 ; in Ohio, 30 ; sharing respon- 
sibilities with ministry, 31 ; life 
of, in Wisconsin, 66 ; one of, 68 ; 
life of, pictured, 71. 

Preachers : pioneer, 25 ; character 
of, described, 76; itinerant, 83; 
one of, an itinerant described, 84. 



Powell, Rev. Thomas : work of, 50. 

Protestantism : apostles of, 10, 11 ; 
representatives of, 11. 

Publication Society, The: and 
Sunday-schools, 244; indebted- 
ness of West to, 244; sending 
Sunday-school missionaries, 47 ; 
Dr. Blackall connected with, 248 ; 
and Young People's Union, 252 ; 
purchasing and starting paper, 
255 ; conference held by, 255 ; 
additional influence of, 258. 

Recognition : due La Salle, Joliet, 
Marquette, and Nicolet, 12. 

Rice, Luther: influencing J. M. 
Peck, 74. 

Robinson, Dr. E. G.: pastor at Ninth 
Street, Cincinnati, 150 ; sketch of, 
151 ; connected with institution 
at Covington, 333 ; death of, 407. 

Rockefeller, Mr. John D. : men- 
tioned, 299 ; giving to education 
society, 300 ; preferring Chicago 
for university, 301 ; giving $600,- 
000, 302; additional gift of, to 
Chicago University, 407. 

Sedwick, the brothers : sketch of, 
35, 36. 

Settlers, new : seeking new terri- 
tory, 15 ; described, 16 ; type of, 
17. 

Shepardson, Rev. Daniel: quota- 
tion from, 29, 30; extract from, 
91. 

Sites : those of Detroit, Cincinnati, 
Milwaukee, and Chicago, 18. 

Shurtleff College : organization 
and naming of, 268, 269; pro- 
fessors and presidents at, 312, 
313; Prof. Bulkly at, 317, 318; 
other professors at, 318-320 ; theo- 
logical work at, 336; sending 



INDEX 



419 



many men into the ministry, 
337; professors at, 337; recent 
commencement at, 405. 

Slavery, anti- : entering Western 
history, 137; issue becoming 
more pronounced, 137, 138 ; issue 
almost universal, 143 ; contro- 
versy regarding Covington Semi- 
nary, 334 ; agitation, an obsta- 
cle to journalism, 381. 

Springfield, 111. : church organized 
at, 99; Association organized, 
100 ; pastors at, 100, 101 ; laymen 
in, 101. 

Standard, The : quoted from, 265 ; 
consolidation of papers with, 389. 

States under consideration : settle- 
ment of, 21, 22; admitted to 
Union, 22 ; Baptist history with- 
in, 23. 

Statistics : concerning A s s o c i a- 
tions, etc., 80; in Indiana and 
Ohio, 81; of Milwaukee 
churches, 402. 

Stimson, Rev. S. M., 208. 

Stevens, Rev. John : mentioned, 
37 ; editor Baptist Weekly Jour- 
nal, 37. 

Stott, Pres. W. T. : quoted from, 
55, 56; grandfather of, men- 
tioned, 58; extract from, 131; 
made president of Franklin Col- 
lege, 315 ; sketch of, 315 ; quoted 
from, 357-359. 

Stone, Rev. 0. B., 201. 

Sunday-schools: sentiment 
against, 121 ; first one of, in Illi- 
nois, 170; development of, 244; 
first to establish, 245 ; influence 
of, 246 ; missionaries for, 247 ; 
workers connected with, 248; 
B. F. Jacob's influence on, 249 ; 
lessons for, adopted, 249, 250; 
inductive method for, 250. 



j Thompson, Rev. Wilson : a disci- 
ple of Daniel Parker, 126-128. 

Tolman, Rev. C. F., 206. 

Tolman, Rev. J. F. : sketch of, 51, 
52. 

Torrence, the rule of : given, 41 ; 
mentioned, 137 

Triennial Convention : appoint- 
ing of Rev. J. M. Peck, 75 ; Rev. 
Isaac McCoy, 185. 

Two-seed doctrine : mentioned. 
122; nature of, 124; ignorance 
and intolerance connected with. 
129 ; still adherents of, 131. 

University of Chicago (old) : re- 
ferred to, 280 ; origin of, 281 ; Dr. 
Burroughs connected with, 281, 
282; chartered, 282; instruction 
begun at, 283 ; Dr. Burroughs 
president of, 286 ; difficulties of. 
286-290 ; sale of buildings of, 289 ; 
ceased to exist, 291; Dearborn 
Observatory connected with, 
291; Dr. Boise connected with, 
320 ; Profs. Matthews and Mixer 
at, 321, 322. 

University of Chicago (new) : 
thought of, 301 ; gift of $600,000 
to, 303 ; organization of, 303 ; 
Board of, 304 ; Dr. Harper made 
president of, 305 ; grounds pur- 
chased for, and buildings 
erected, 306, 307 ; gifts of Chicago 
to, 306 ; opening of, 308 ; an ob- 
servatory for, 308 ; faculty of, 
309 ; Morgan Park Seminary 
connected with, 353 ; professors 
of divinity school of, 354, 355 : 
acquiring property at Morgan 
Park, 355, affiliating Wayland 
Academy, 364; summer convo- 
cation at, 406; additional gifts 
to, 407 ; assets of, 407. 



420 



INDEX 



Union, American Baptist Mission- 
ary : article in constitution of, 
192 ; difference of, with Free 
Mission Society, 192 ; relation of, 
to women's organization, 210. 

Union, Baptist Young People's : 
introductory to, 251 ; the Publi- 
cation Society connected with, 
252; Mr. Van Osdel's influence 
on, 252, 253 ; preliminary move- 
ments of, 254 ; organization of, 
256 ; John H. Chapman president 
of, 257. 

Vawter, Deacon John: described, 
54-56. 

Waukesha: first Baptist church 
organized in, 06. 

West : enterprises of, 15 ; French 
outposts in, 18 ; pastorates in, 
147 ; laymen and ministry of, 
147, 148 ; schools of, 149 ; Baptists 
of, co-operating in missions, 191 ; 
services of Home Mission Society 
in, 196-198 ; Women's Society of, 
210 ; Sunday-schools in, 245 ; 
Cincinnati commercial center 
of, 329 ; academies in, 355. 



" Western Christian " : foundation 
of, 193. 

Western Baptist Theological In- 
stitute: organized, 333; divided, 
334 ; dissolved, 334. 

Weston, H. G. : pastor at Peoria, 
102 ; sketch of, 102, 103. 

Wisconsin : settled, 13 ; organized 
as Territory, 22; admitted to 
Union, 22; pioneer life in, 66; 
first Baptist church organized 
in, 66; pioneer Baptist history 
in, 69 ; additional notice of, 182 ; 
State organization, 225, 234-236 ; 
results in, 243 ; theological edu- 
cation in, 337 ; preparatory edu- 
cational institutions in, 362-364. 
j Women : foreign mission work of, 
209-214; home mission work of, 
214-219; noted workers among, 
211, 212; publications of, 213: 
State organizations of, 213, 214 ; 
home mission workers among, 
215 ; reports of, for home field, 
217 ; home training school of, 
218 ; home officers of, 218. 



KH 



^■1 



■ 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 015 879 2 



